O w WV^sTV 
 
 L<f5&
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 THE 
 
 LOST LODE. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHRISTIAN REID. 
 
 AND 
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 BY 
 
 F. X. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 H. L. KILNER & Co., 
 
 PUBLISHERS.
 
 Copyright, ,893, 
 Bv U. L. KILNBR & Co.
 
 PS 
 
 L $J 
 
 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FAB in the heart of the great Sierras that in 
 
 wild and austere majesty stretch their length of 
 tossed and broken heights along the western coast 
 *Z of Mexico lies the Espiritu Santo Mine. It is a 
 '.* mine with a wonderful history the history of a 
 b bonanza running through more than a century, of 
 powerful families created and enriched by its 
 <j wealth, and of a flourishing town, which built 
 Jf} upon its prosperity, fell into decay with its failure. 
 g For there came a day when even the Espiritu 
 Santo failed. The great bonanzo, which had lasted 
 for a length of time almost unexampled even in 
 o Mexican mines, disappeared at length. Whether 
 s<: it was finally worked out, or whether it had only 
 been lost, as lodes are often lost, no one could say. 
 It was in the terrible period which the people call 
 " the times of the revolution " that the ore ceased 
 ^ to pay ; and in this era of confusion and blood- 
 shed, of suffering and distress, financial collapse 
 in all forms was too common to excite surprise or 
 comment. It seemed altogether a thing to be ex- 
 
 (3)
 
 4 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 pected that the great silver lode of the Espiritu 
 Santo should have failed at this time. Had it not 
 failed, there was then neither money nor men to 
 work it. The money was taken by forced levies, 
 for the support of armies arid revolutionary lead- 
 ers, the men died by thousands on obscure battle- 
 fields where the land was drenched in the blood 
 of its sons. 
 
 And so, for many years, the great and once 
 famous mine was left deserted, water rose un- 
 checked in its dark tunnels, from whence the 
 value of a kingdom's ransom had been drawn ; and 
 no one was bold enough to attempt to touch it. 
 Even after the long throes of revolution were over 
 and something like peace descended upon the ex- 
 hausted land, men were too impoverished and too 
 afraid of risking what yet remained to them, to 
 think of the Espiritu Santo Mine. For in this 
 case the Mexican proverb, " Una mina quiere otra 
 mina " (" One mine wants another mine " to fur- 
 nish means to work it), was especially true. To 
 drain the mine and to explore its deep workings 
 for the lost lode of fabulous richness would re- 
 quire a large capital a capital so large, in fact, 
 that no single man was likely to furnish it, and 
 the only hope for a renewed working was in the 
 organization of a company. 
 
 This being well known, every one was aston- 
 ished when Fernando Sandoval " denounced " the 
 mine; for nothing was a more indisputable fact
 
 THE LOST LODE. 5 
 
 than that Fernando neither had nor could com- 
 mand means to work it. He belonged to a 
 family that in former times had owned a large 
 interest and grown rich from its profits. But 
 those riches had now taken wings, for in Mexico 
 as in other countries, the case of the bottom rail 
 finding itself on the top, and vice versa, was a 
 frequent practical result of the wars. The family 
 Sandoval were now very poor. They, who had 
 once counted their territory by leagues rather 
 than by acres, were now reduced to one small 
 estate in the beautiful valley over which frowned 
 the rugged heights and passes of the mountains 
 within whose great purple clefts lay the opening 
 of the mine from which they had once derived so 
 much wealth. 
 
 It was perhaps because it lay there, domi- 
 nating the poverty in which he spent his life with 
 the suggestion of untold riches, that Fernando, 
 the eldest son of the family, felt his heart burning 
 with a discontent very unusual in one of his 
 people, who, as a rule, accept the alterations of 
 fortune with oriental stoicism. Or perhaps the 
 fact that he wished very much to marry and 
 could not afford to do so caused him to think by 
 day and night of the lost lode, and to speculate 
 upon the chances of finding it. For he knew well 
 that unless he could reach fortune by some short- 
 dut the soft, dark eyes of his cousin Guadalupe 
 would never be allowed to smile for him. She
 
 6 Tfifc LOST LODE. 
 
 was an orphan, dwelling beneath his father's roof 
 and subject entirely to the control of his parents, 
 who, although they had given her a home and 
 love and kindness, when the cruel changes of war 
 had in early childhood left her orphaned and 
 penniless, would certainly never consent to his 
 marrying her unless he could prove his right to 
 do so by making money enough to enable him to 
 do as he pleased. 
 
 But how was this to be accomplished ? It is 
 not an easy task, even in a country where 
 opportunities for money-making abound, but in a 
 country impoverished by revolutions, with few 
 industries, few avenues to wealth, it becomes an 
 almost insoluble problem. So Fernando found it, 
 and so his thoughts turned more and more towards 
 the romantic stories which abound in Mexico of 
 sudden wealth yielded by the mines that from the 
 days of Cortez to our own have surpassed in 
 richness all others in the world. If he could but 
 find again the lost lode of the Espiritu Santo! 
 He began to haunt the deserted mine, to descend 
 as far as he could into it, to gaze with passionate 
 longing at the depths of still water that covered 
 the old workings. Somewhere, somewhere there 
 down there must lie the lost lode ! He felt it 
 with an intensity and a certainty that was like a 
 consuming passion. For money to drain those 
 dark waters and search untiringly until the lode 
 was found, what would he not give or do ! But
 
 THE LOST LODE. 7 
 
 money for such investment he neither had nor 
 could possibly obtain. And this being so, it was 
 necessary to put his wits to work and endeavor to 
 accomplish by other means the end on which he 
 had set his heart. 
 
 About this time he began to correspond with a 
 friend in the City of Mexico, a lawyer known to 
 have business dealings with certain English com- 
 panies. The result of the correspondence was 
 that one day Fernando went to the Mining 
 Deputation and denounced the Espiritu Santo 
 Mine, thus becoming its owner after the for- 
 malities of the law were complied with, but bound 
 by law to do a certain amount of work within a 
 certain limit of time, or to forfeit his title, in 
 which case the mine would again revert to the 
 state and be again open to denouncement, as the 
 process of acquiring title is called. 
 
 It was then that his friends and acquaintances 
 began to wonder what Fernando meant to do. 
 They were not long left in doubt. Soon two 
 foreigners appeared on the scene, who inspected 
 the mine as far as inspection was possible, and 
 then took a bond upon it. Men were at once 
 placed at work, although no work of any real 
 importance was possible until the mine was 
 drained ; for which purpose a powerful modern 
 pump was necessary. In the course of a few 
 months this arrived, the engine was put up, and 
 soon the water of the mine was pouring in a flood
 
 8 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 through the mouth of the tunnel which was the 
 chief entrance into it, and flowing tumultuously 
 down the steep arroyo of the mountain -side. 
 
 Following upon this, a new person arrived on 
 the scene a young Englishman who, it was 
 understood, was to take charge of the work now 
 that there would be something of importance to 
 be done. He did not seem very much like one 
 who would stimulate or hasten work, this dark, 
 languid young man, who, except in mariner and 
 speech, had no appearance of an Englishman; 
 but since he carried half the alphabet after his 
 name, in token that he belonged to half a dozen 
 scientific societies, it is to be supposed that the 
 new owners of the Espiritu Santo knew what they 
 were about in sending him to look after their 
 interests. That he was the son of one of them 
 had perhaps as much bearing upon the case as the 
 scientific initials; but neither fact impressed 
 Fernando Sandoval with much belief in his 
 practical ability. Although he did not smile 
 when he saw him, for a Mexican has the impas- 
 sive calm of an Indian together with the stately 
 dignity of a Spaniard, he certainly thought that 
 this bored-looking fine gentleman, with his sleepy 
 eyes, his English drawl, and admirably-cut 
 London clothes, would not be likely either to find 
 the lost lode himself, or to interfere seriously 
 with certain plans already matured in his (Sand- 
 oval's) mind regarding it.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE house of La Providencia, the small estate 
 of the Sandoval family, stands on a gentle emi- 
 nence hardly large enough to be called a hill, be- 
 hind which, at the distance of about half a mile, 
 rises abruptly the steep, serrated mountain range, 
 and before which extends the level lands of the 
 flourishing but now decayed town that dates its 
 era of prosperity according to the length of time 
 when the Espiritu Santo Mine was " in bonanza." 
 
 The casa of La Providencia looks naturally to- 
 ward the town, and from the corridor, or arcade, 
 that extends along the front of the house, any one 
 with an appreciation for the beautiful in nature 
 has a charming picture spread before the gaze. 
 The lovely valley, smiling in fertility, stretches 
 away for at least twenty miles, so that the moun- 
 tains at the farther end are like the azure battle- 
 ments of heaven. On each side the great encir- 
 cling sierras extend vast purple masses in the 
 distance, rugged, dominating heights close at hand, 
 with forests still standing in their deep clefts and 
 gorges, but the slope of their immense shoulders 
 bare and brown, save in the rainy season, when a 
 
 (9)
 
 10 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 beautiful mantle of green spreads over them. In 
 the middle distance lies the town, apparently em- 
 bowered in tropical foliage, above which rises the 
 noble tower of the church, a perfect picturesque 
 object, as all Mexican churches are, outlined 
 against a sky that burns ever with the blue inten- 
 sity of a jewel. Broad, white roads lead from the 
 town in various directions, and along one of these 
 roads about four o'clock one afternoon the young 
 English superintendent of the Espiritu Santo Mine 
 was riding. 
 
 He did not look amiable as he walked his 
 horse along a foot-path at the side of the road, to 
 avoid the suffocating clouds of white dust which 
 every step on the highway raised. He was a very 
 foreign figure, despite the broad Mexican hat he 
 wore to shield himself from the sun ; and as he let 
 the reins fall carelessly on his horse's neck and 
 gazed with sombre eyes across the valley, over 
 which, on the western side, broad, deep shadows 
 were already lying, an observer could hardly have 
 failed to see that he was a very dissatisfied man in- 
 deed. 
 
 And certainly, in Mr. Cecil Vyner's opinion, he 
 had every reason for dissatisfaction. To be sum- 
 marily exiled from the only life worth living 
 that of London in its season of gaiety and fashion 
 and sent, not to some foreign city where there 
 would at least be a few social distractions, but a 
 remote Mexican village where he was thrown
 
 f HE LOST LODE. 11 
 
 literally and completely upon his own resources, 
 and where, possessing very few of these resources, 
 he was almost ready to cut his throat from ennui, 
 was surely enough to account for the gloom of his 
 face and the depression of his spirits. He was in- 
 wardly cursing his fate, his father, and last, but 
 certainly not least, the Espiritu Santo Mine, as 
 he rode along the sunlit valley, which to other 
 eyes might have borne the aspect of a paradise, 
 but to him was more repugnant than a desert. 
 There was but one ray of hope before him. If he 
 could find the lost lode his father would be so 
 much pleased that he might condone the financial 
 extravagance which had outraged him; and he 
 (Vyner) might be recalled from exile and restored 
 to the life he loved and the woman he fancied he 
 adored. But the realization of this hope seemed 
 to him vague and distant. He looked with lower- 
 ing brows at the great deep gash in the mountain 
 where the opening to the mine lay, and was pos- 
 sessed with a sense of impotent rage as he thought 
 of the baffling secret which it held. So another 
 man had often looked and longed, feeling as 
 Vyner felt now, that if he could not soon wrest 
 that secret from nature's dark depths, the woman 
 he loved might be placed for ever beyond his 
 reach. 
 
 But, though he might look at it with rage in his 
 heart, it was not to the mine that the young En- 
 glishman was bound this afternoon. When he
 
 12 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 reached the gates through which a road passed 
 from the highway into the lands of La Providen- 
 cia, he turned and entered them. Riding through 
 wide fields, just now bare from the garnered har- 
 vest, he presently reached the gentle hill on 
 which the house stood, and passing through an- 
 other gate, surrounded by the small, dark huts of 
 the laborers employed on the estate, rode up a 
 sloping road to the corridor that, with its pictur- 
 esque arches, overlooked the valley. 
 
 A girl seated in the shade of this corridor, with 
 some fine needlework in her hands, had observed 
 him ever since he turned from the highway into 
 the fields. There was not much interest in her 
 observation, for she knew very well who he was, 
 and that he had a right of way across the lands of 
 the hacienda to the mine in the heights beyond. 
 She supposed that he was bound to the latter 
 place until his horse's hoofs striking on the stony 
 hillside told her that he was, instead, coming to 
 the house. A minute later he reined up before 
 her and uncovered. 
 
 " Good-day, seriorita," he said in sufficiently 
 fluent Spanish. " Will you do me the favor to 
 tell me where I can find Senor Don Fernando 
 Sandoval?" Then to himself he added, "What 
 a beautiful girl ! " 
 
 And indeed it could only have been a blind 
 man who did not perceive the beauty of the face 
 looking up into his a face with purely outlined
 
 THE LOST LODE. 13 
 
 features of almost classical delicacy, large dark 
 eyes of singular sweetness, set under the mid- 
 night shadow of sweeping lashes and perfect 
 brows, a complexion like ivory in its softness and 
 smoothness, a mouth of noble beauty, and rich 
 hair waving in curling tendrils around a forehead 
 that in proportion and form was one of the most 
 charming features of the countenance. And with 
 this lovely countenance were united a clear di- 
 rectness of gaze untinged by coquetry, and a sim- 
 plicity and grace of bearing without the faintest 
 trace of self-consciousness. All over the Mexican 
 land, in lowest as in highest, one finds this simplic- 
 ity and grace ; but Vyner had never before been 
 so struck with it as in this girl, who, seated under 
 the shadow of what was little more than a farm- 
 house, answered him with the quiet courtesy of a 
 young princess : 
 
 " I am sorry, senor, but Don Fernando is not at 
 home. When he rose from his siesta he went out 
 into the fields and has not returned. Pancho " 
 she turned to a small boy who emerged from some 
 inner region " do you know when Fernando will 
 return ? " 
 
 Pancho shook his head, which was covered with 
 a mop-like growth of thick black hair. " No," he 
 answered, "Fernando went out to the vanqueros, 
 who are branding the calves. I wished much to 
 go," he added in a tone of personal injury, " but I
 
 14 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 had no horse and Fernando would not take me 
 behind him. He took Manuel instead." 
 
 The girl looked at the stranger. " It is very 
 far, senor," she said, " to the place where the va- 
 queros have the cattle. If my cousin has gone 
 there, he will not return until late, and it is not 
 likely that you can see him to-day ; but his 
 father, Don Ignacio, is at home, if you would like 
 to see him." 
 
 " I will go and tell him," said Pancho without 
 waiting for a reply, and he darted into the house. 
 
 Vyner had no desire to see Don Ignacio, but the 
 matter seemed taken out of his hands by the 
 prompt action of the boy, and after all, when a 
 man has nothing better to do, why should he not 
 pause in grateful shade on a warm afternoon, and 
 please his eyes by the sight of the most beautiful 
 face he has seen for many days ? Certainly the 
 eyes in question remained fastened upon the face 
 with a persistence which might have unsettled the 
 composure of an older woman, but that had ap- 
 parently no effect upon this Mexican girl. 
 
 " You will descend from your horse, senor, and 
 sit down until my uncle comes ? " she said ; and 
 then, with the graceful, oriental gesture common 
 in the country, she clapped her hands. 
 
 A mozo, who looked like a bronze statue dressed 
 in white cotton cloth and girded with a red sash, 
 appeared, took the horse and led him away, while 
 Vyner, entering the brick-paved corridor, the floor
 
 THE LOST LODE. 15 
 
 of which was on a level with the ground, sat down 
 on one of the chairs of bamboo and leather placed 
 there. Now for the first time he looked away 
 from the girl over the wide, beautiful picture 
 which the arches framed, and for the first time he 
 saw and felt the loveliness of the natural scenes 
 around him. 
 
 " You have a charming situation here, senorita," 
 he said. " This view of the valley and mountains 
 is superb. Do you not admire it ? " 
 
 She hesitated a moment before replying. It 
 had never occurred to her to think whether she 
 admired it or not. It was part of her life al- 
 most of herself this picture which since her ear- 
 liest youth had been spread before her eyes in un- 
 changing beauty, "Yes, it is fine one can see 
 all the valley from here," she said after a moment. 
 " The senor likes our valley ? " 
 
 The senor shrugged his shoulders. " It is very 
 beautiful," he said, " but one cannot live on nat- 
 ural beauty at least I can't. One wants a little 
 society a few friends. I am a stranger here, you 
 know, and I find it very lonely," Had he been 
 speaking in his own language, he would have ad- 
 ded in words, as in his thoughts, " and beastly 
 dull " ; but the stately Spanish tongue does not 
 lend itself readily to English slang, so his state- 
 ment remained incomplete so far as his own senti- 
 ments were concerned though more likely to ap- 
 peal to the sympathy of his companion.
 
 16 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 And the liquid eyes were full of this sympathy 
 as they regarded him. He looked so oppressed by 
 the loneliness of which he spoke, as he sat gazing 
 out over the Arcadian valley, with its magical 
 mountain walls ; and, like all women, this girl was 
 easily touched b}' the sight of unhappiness. "But 
 is it necessary for you to be lonely?" she said. 
 "You speak our language very well, and our people 
 are glad to welcome strangers who come with 
 friendly feelings toward us." 
 
 Vyner might have answered very truly that the 
 friendly feelings were non-existent in his case, for 
 with true Anglo-Saxon arrogance he regarded the 
 people as belonging to an inferior race, and up to 
 the present moment had not been troubled with 
 the faintest desire to know any of those who in- 
 habited this remote spot. But now things began 
 to wear a slightly different aspect. It might be 
 worth while to know the Sandovals, if only for the 
 privilege of looking now and then at the lovely 
 face before him. " You are very kind, senorita," he 
 answered. "No doubt your people would be 
 friendly enough although we really have not 
 much in common, you know but I have not up to 
 this time cared to make acquaintances. Now, 
 however " 
 
 He paused abruptly, for at this moment Don 
 Ignacio stepped out of the house. A tall, stal- 
 wart figure, with a deeply bronzed face, clearly- 
 cut features and piercing dark eyes, he looked
 
 THE LOST LODE. 17 
 
 what he was a man born to wealth and command, 
 consigned by adverse fate to poverty and obscurity, 
 and grown somewhat morose under a discipline 
 which, as a general rule, only benefits sweet and 
 noble natures. A mass of iron-gray hair stood up 
 straight from the square, olive forehead, and a short 
 moustache, also partially gray, covered the upper 
 lip. His dress was somewhat shabby the short 
 Mexican jacket of black cloth which he wore, 
 somewhat frayed and worn but there was no mis- 
 taking that the man was a gentleman, and even 
 Vyner, though he had no very keen perceptions to 
 pierce below the outward aspect of things, had 
 not the least doubt of it as he rose to meet him. 
 
 "It is the English senor from the mine, uncle," 
 said the girl's soft voice. " He wishes to see Fer- 
 nando." 
 
 " My name is Vyner," said the young man. 
 " Your son, Don Fernando, knows me very well, 
 sefior. I have taken the liberty of calling to see 
 him on a matter of business; and since he is not 
 at home, the senorita suggested that I might see 
 yourself." 
 
 " You are very welcome, seuor," answered the 
 grave Mexican with an air of stately courtesy. 
 " My son has often spoken of you, and I am happy 
 to know you. My house is yours. Will you not 
 enter?" 
 
 He waved his hand toward the great open door 
 of the house, but Vyner had no intention of leav- 
 2
 
 18 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 ing the attraction which had detained him ; and 
 he made a decided negative gesture. 
 
 "Pardon me," he said, "but I shall only detain 
 you for a few minutes and it is very delightful 
 here, if you will allow me to remain " 
 
 " Pray be seated, then, " said Don Ignacio with 
 another wave of the hand ; and when the visitor 
 had resumed his seat, he sat down himself. The 
 usual interchange of courtesies then followed be- 
 tween the two men, while the girl relapsed into si- 
 lence and devoted herself to the stitching in her 
 hands, her dark lashes throwing a shadow on the soft 
 ivory of her cheeks as she looked downward. Vy- 
 ner's eyes wandered persistently toward her while 
 he answered his host's remarks rather absently, and 
 it was with a sense of pulling himself up that he 
 presently observed abruptly : 
 
 " As I have said, senor, I called to see your son 
 on business, and I shall be much obliged if you 
 will do me the favor to deliver a message to him." 
 
 Don Ignacio bowed. "I am at your service, 
 senor," he replied. "I will deliver to my son any 
 message with which you do me the honor to en- 
 trust me." 
 
 "I wish," said Vyner, "to ask Don Fernando if 
 it would be possible for him to take a position at 
 the Espiritu Santo mine. My English foreman is 
 leaving. He does not understand the men nor 
 they him, and a continual conflict has been the re- 
 sult. I therefore think it better to supply his
 
 THE LOST LODE. 19 
 
 place with a Mexican who knows his people; and 
 it occurred to me that perhaps Don Fernando 
 might accept the position. He will be in control 
 of everything though subject, of course, to my 
 direction and the salary is a hundred dollars a 
 month." 
 
 He paused, and he judged rightly enough the 
 character of the man before him not to be sur- 
 prised that the dark brows knitted slightly over 
 the deep-set eyes. Evidently it was not pleasant 
 to Don Ignacio that his son should be asked to 
 serve as a servant where he himself had once com- 
 manded as a master ; but the courtesy of his man- 
 ner did not change as he answered : 
 
 " I will deliver your message to my son, senor ; 
 but you will permit me to remind you that practi- 
 cally he knows little of mining. Let me suggest 
 that in Guanajuato or some other mining town you 
 could easily find some one trained to the business, 
 who would serve your purpose much better." 
 
 " Not at all," answered Vyner with positive- 
 ness. " I do not need a man of very special 
 training, because I shall direct the work myself. 
 All that I want is some one who will see that my 
 orders are carefully executed, and who will under- 
 stand the men and manage them without diffi- 
 culty. Your son will certainly be able to do these 
 things ; and I shall be much obliged if you will 
 ask him to take my offer into consideration, and 
 let me know his decision as soon as possible."
 
 20 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 The Mexican bent his head. " I will tell him 
 all you have said," he answered briefly. 
 
 " He knows where to find me in the town down 
 there," said Vyner, nodding toward the embower- 
 ed church-tower, " and I should be very happy, 
 senor, if you would do me the favor of consider- 
 ing my house there as your own." 
 
 The reply was what would naturally follow in 
 such a case, elaborate acknowledgement and an 
 assurance of unlimited hospitality on the part of 
 La Providencia. Vyner answered suitably, and 
 then rose : there was no longer an excuse for lin- 
 gering. Don Ignacio offered chocolate, and when 
 it was declined, clapped his hands, at which signal 
 mozo and horse promptly reappeared. Vyner 
 walked over and offered his hand to the girl, who 
 again lifted her dark, sweet eyes to his. 
 
 " Adois, senorita, and many thanks," he said. 
 
 As he rode away the smile with which she an- 
 swered simply, "Adois, senor," seemed to linger 
 with him like the perfume of a flower.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 It was on the same corridor several hours later, 
 when the violet sky overhead was thickset, with 
 myriads of shining stars, and the wide outspread 
 landscape was no more than a shadowy sugges- 
 tion of mountains and plain, that Fernando said 
 to his cousin : 
 
 " My opportunity has come at last, Guadalupe. 
 I thought that it would if I had patience enough 
 to wait." 
 
 Guadalupe did .not answer for a moment. In 
 the soft obscurity he could not see more than the 
 outlines of her face ; but her voice was a little 
 thoughtful when she spoke: 
 
 " What do you mean by your opportunity, Fer- 
 nando? Is it so much to you to have this position 
 in the mine?" 
 
 He laughed shortly, a laugh which jarred as it 
 struck on the girl's ear. "Yes," he answered, "it 
 is much to me to have this position ; but not for 
 the sake of its paltry remuneration. My father is 
 right about that. It would ill become a Sandoval 
 to take a servant's place for a little money. But 
 when a great amount of money millions it may 
 
 (21)
 
 22 SHE LOST LODE. 
 
 be is at stake, then it is worth while to humili- 
 ate one's self for a time in order to triumph later. 
 This is what he does not know. But you, Gauda- 
 lupe, you must understand why I take the oppor- 
 tunity which this foreigner has put into my hand, 
 and accept the place he offers." 
 
 The girl seemed to shrink a little in the depths 
 of the chair in which she sat. Again there was a 
 moment's pause before she spoke, and when she 
 did her voice had a curious ring of hesitation in it. 
 " No " she said, " I do not understand why this 
 position should mean so much to you, or how 
 how, Fernando mio, you can serve both your own 
 interest and that of the man who will employ and 
 trust you." 
 
 " You are dull, then, Guadalupe, or is it that 
 you do not wish to understand ?" said Fernando 
 a little harshly. " You know that I live but for 
 one object, to find the lost lode of the Espiritu 
 Santo Mine, because to find that means to win 
 you. For a year past I have thought by day and 
 dreamed by night of nothing else ; and I have laid 
 my plans well. This foreigner will never find the 
 lode. He is not only a fool where mining is con- 
 cerned, with all his assumption of science, but 
 well, there are other reasons, which I need not tell 
 you, why he will never find it. At last he and 
 the men who have sent him here will grow weary, 
 they will abandon the mine, their costly machin- 
 ery will be sold for anything it will bring. I will
 
 THE LOST LODE. 23 
 
 buy it, denounce the mine afresh, open the lode, 
 and we are rich once more, and you are mine 
 mine for ever, Guadalupe ! " 
 
 He put out his hand under cover of the dark- 
 ness and seized hers in a strong, close clasp. 
 What' was there in the touch that seemed to sud- 
 denly fill her soul with a rush of pity and of the 
 love which the moment before his words had 
 chilled and shocked ? The hand which touched 
 hers was like the hand of a man in burning fever 
 hot and dry, with a pulse that throbbed passion- 
 ately. It seemed to tell her to what a pitch of hardly 
 accountable excitement the man was strung. She 
 laid her other cool, soft hand upon it, and spoke 
 with a tenderness that an instant earlier would 
 have been impossible to her. 
 
 " I am yours forever, whether poverty or riches 
 lie before us, Fernando. But I had far rather it 
 were poverty than riches bought at the price of 
 treachery. No, do not take your hand away ! Lis- 
 ten to me to me who love you for one moment ! 
 You have thought of this lost lode until you are 
 not yourself. You are like a man possessed by an 
 evil spirit that will lead you to deeds that must 
 stain your soul, if you do not pause. O Fernando ! 
 think of it no more. Keep faith with those to 
 whom you have sold this mine. Let them find 
 the lode if they can. It is enough if we have the 
 price you have asked for the mine. You can gain 
 no more with a clear conscience and an undefiled
 
 24 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 soul. Do not go near that mine where temptation 
 lies in wait for you. O my love, my love ! listen 
 to me. Do not take the position this man offers, 
 I beg, I pray you, Fernando " 
 
 Her voice failed under the influence of the 
 feeling which her own pleading seemed to inten- 
 sify. Her tones were very low, but they thrilled 
 with a passion of entreaty, and her small hands 
 clasped his with a compelling force, as if she 
 would constrain him to hear and to heed. Love 
 has sometimes a wonderful illuminating power, 
 and one old in the knowledge of life and sin 
 could have felt no more strongly than this girl, in 
 her youth and ignorance, that the man beside her 
 stood in deadly temptation. Was it possible that 
 her voice the voice he loved so well could fail 
 to draw him from it? 
 
 Alas ! in all ages is not the story told that an- 
 gels, in one form or another, have pleaded in vain 
 with men when their hearts and minds were set 
 toward the glamour of evil ? For an instant Fer- 
 nando' s purpose wavered, but the next moment it 
 was like steel again. Much as he loved Guada- 
 lupe, what was she but a woman, a girl, full of 
 foolish scruples and unfit to counsel a man in the 
 serious affairs of life ? He had made a mistake in 
 speaking to her of matters beyond her comprehen- 
 sion. It was for a man to fight the world and 
 win fortune with whatever weapons should seem 
 to him best, and for a woman to accept the results
 
 THE LOST LODE. 25 
 
 without inquiry, submissive to his higher wisdom. 
 So when he spoke there was a certain hardness in 
 his tone that struck on her passionate mood like 
 ice- water on heated metal. 
 
 " I see that you do not understand me, Guada- 
 lupe, and it is best that we should talk of this no 
 further. Every man has a right to do the best 
 that he can for his own interest. I am doing no 
 more. If these blundering foreigners serve me 
 without intending to do so, I am not to blame for 
 that. Nor yet am I to blame if I take advantage 
 of their ignorance and stupidity." 
 
 " You are deceiving yourself, Fernando," said 
 Guadalupe sadly. "You are to blame if you 
 should bind yourself to serve their interest, and 
 instead you should betray it and serve your own. 
 What would you say of another man who acted 
 in that manner ? And even now, I fear oh ! for- 
 give me that I must say it I fear that you are 
 trying to gain your end by means that neither 
 your honor nor your conscience can approve. " 
 
 " That is enough, " said Fernando angrily 
 drawing his hand from her soft detaining clasp. 
 " You insult me, you do not trust me, you can 
 have no love for me. When a woman loves a 
 man all that he does is right in her eyes, she 
 thinks only of his interest, not of that of any 
 other man ; but you^ what do you know of love ? " 
 
 " So much that I would die for you, Fernando, 
 willingly, gladly," she said, clasping her hands,
 
 26 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 and bending toward him. " But to see you do 
 what is dishonorable in the eyes of men, and a sin 
 in the eyes of God, how could I love you and not 
 try with all iny strength to hold you back from 
 that?" 
 
 "If you loved me you would believe that I 
 know best what is right," he said with passionate 
 arrogance. 
 
 There was a moment's silence. Then, " Should 
 I ? " she asked with a quivering intonation. " I 
 think not, Fernando ; for how can any human love 
 alter the laws of God, the laws that bind us to 
 justice and truth ? They do not depend on what 
 you or I may think or feel toward each other, 
 those laws. They are fixed forever, like the stars 
 yonder, to guide us both. 
 
 Her voice dropped with the last word, and it 
 was now Fernando's turn to be silent for a mo- 
 ment. Like many another man, he was angered 
 by the opposition of the one being on whom he 
 felt he had a right to count for support in any 
 event. The truths which Guadalupe uttered he 
 did not wish to hear from any one ; but they 
 were especially offensive coming from her ; for he 
 desired to deceive himself as far as practicable, 
 and he desired her aid in doing so. He had not 
 reckoned on the strength of integrity in that girl's 
 nature, nor the living force which certain com- 
 mandments, that he had trained himself to regard 
 lightly enough, had for her. She was the only
 
 THE LOST LODE. 27 
 
 confidante whom he could allow himself, and he 
 had followed an irresistible impulse in speaking 
 to her freely ; but he saw now that he must deny 
 himself this solace, and wear a mask for her as 
 for all the rest of the world. 
 
 " You do me great injustice," he said at length, 
 and, despite his efforts, he conld not keep a tone 
 of sullenness out of his voice. "I am not so 
 treacherous and dishonorable as you think. If I 
 take the position offered me in the mine, I shall 
 not betray any interests confined to me. My 
 father tells me that Senor Vyner simply wishes 
 some one to execute his orders. That I can do 
 with a clear conscience, for I wish I were as sure 
 of Paradise as I am that he will never find the 
 lost lode. Now we will speak of this no more." 
 
 And indeed Guadalupe's name was at this 
 moment called by a voice that of her aunt 
 which she had no alternative but to obey 
 promptly. " I come," she answered, and then 
 rising, bent for an instant over Fernando as he 
 remained seated, put both hands on his shoulders 
 so that the sweetness of her presence seemed to 
 envelop him, kissed him lightly on the forehead, 
 and was gone. 
 
 She did not see him again that night, and when 
 she asked for him the next morning one of the 
 younger boys said that he had ridden away at 
 daylight, without telling any one where he was 
 going. Guadalupe sighed. Was he angry with
 
 28 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 her, or did he only mean to avoid her, fearing 
 farther words concerning their difference ? She 
 said to herself that he need have no such fear. 
 She had wisdom enough to perceive clearly that 
 no words of hers had power to move him ; and 
 there was a great and unusual capability of reti- 
 cence in the girl. Some day, perhaps, the 
 opportunity would come to speak again with 
 more effect until then, with the deep, simple 
 piety of her race, she could only pray.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Meanwhile Fernando had indeed ridden away 
 early, before the sun appeared above the eastern 
 mountains. The cool freshness of the dawn- 
 never in this high region without an accompany- 
 ing chill was grateful to his fevered senses ; for 
 all night long he had tossed and turned, beset by 
 troubled visions, and with the pulsating excite- 
 ment that had been increased rather than lessened 
 by her words. Again and again he waked from 
 dreams in which he stood in the dark chambers 
 of the mine beside the shining metal of the lost 
 lode, but with Guadalupe's face and hand, like a 
 forbidding angel's, warning him back. It was a 
 relief to shake off such visions, to rise from his 
 couch, mount his horse in the sharp, clear fresh- 
 ness of the morning, and ride away. The inde- 
 scribable coolness and purity of the air seemed to 
 quiet the fever of his brain, and lay a calming 
 touch upon his nerves. His thoughts took more 
 definite shape, and his face set itself in resolute 
 lines, as he turned his horse's head toward the 
 town. 
 
 The marvelous glow of color which heralded 
 the sunrise had faded by the time he entered the 
 long, oriental-like streets, lined by close-barred, 
 
 (29)
 
 30 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 flat-roofed houses, and saw the beautiful church- 
 tower gilded by the first rays of sunlight. Birds 
 were wheeling in and out of its open arches, 
 and bells with clashing peal were calling men to 
 worship God ; but Fernando paid as little heed to 
 the last as to the first. With averted face he 
 rode quickly by the church, and took his way 
 down the straight street toward a part of the town 
 which, having been the site of the original Aztec 
 village, was still altogether inhabited by Indians. 
 It was called the Cienega ( or swampy place ) 
 from the fact that it lay somewhat lower than the 
 town, and was therefore in less need of irrigation, 
 from which resulted a luxurious growth of 
 vegetation so that the low adobe houses were 
 embowered in tropical shade, and the gardens and 
 fields stretching behind them were covered with a 
 rich, deep green that was to be seen nowhere else 
 during the dry season. 
 
 Before one of the small, dark habitations which 
 bordered the road, Fernando drew up his horse, 
 just as a woman appeared in the low doorway. 
 The level rays of sunshine fell over her tall, 
 straight figure, and made her bare neck and arms 
 for she wore only the cotton skirt and white 
 camiseta common among the lower orders gleam 
 like polished bronze, while no more purely Aztec 
 face ever met the gaze of the first conquerors o 
 Mexico.
 
 THE LOST LODE. 31 
 
 " Good day, Caterina," said the young man. 
 "I want to see the viejocito, Rosalio. Is he at 
 home ?" 
 
 " Yes, senor," the woman answered, " he is in 
 the house. I will call him to you unless you 
 will do us the honor to enter." And no great 
 lady could have invited a guest within by a more 
 graceful gesture. 
 
 " Thanks," said Fernando. " I prefer to see 
 him within, if you can send some one to my 
 horse " 
 
 " At once, senor." She turned, and a moment 
 later a boy appeared, to whom, with a word of 
 caution, Fernando tossed his bridle-rein, and 
 entered the dwelling. It was a single apartment, 
 with a floor of hard and clean-swept earth, and 
 passing through, the young man emerged into an 
 enclosure behind, surrounded by one or two shed- 
 like rooms and an adobe wall, along which cacti 
 were creeping, and over which drooped heavy 
 masses of plume-like foliage. Here he found an 
 old man, spare and wiry of frame, as the elders of 
 his race almost invariably are, with a skin like 
 dried leather, but an eye full of brightness and 
 intelligence, who was seated in a corner, under 
 the shade of the projecting roof of bamboo-sticks 
 and tiles, plaiting straw to be fashioned into the 
 large, coarse sombreros worn by laborers. 
 
 " Ah, Rosalio, how goes it with you ?" cried the
 
 32 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 young man cheerily, as soon as he perceived this 
 figure. 
 
 " Very well, senor, that I may serve you," 
 answered the viejocito, rising and evidently in no 
 doubt who his visitor might be. " Sit down, seiior, 
 sit down " offering his chair. " You are early on 
 the road." 
 
 " It is necessary, for I have much to do," Fer- 
 nando answered as he sat down in the offered chair. 
 " I have come to see you again about the Espiritu 
 Santo Mine," he went on quickly, looking up 
 at the dark old face. " No one knows as much 
 of it as you do, Rosalio, for I think you are 
 the last of those who worked it in the time of the 
 great bonanza." 
 
 " There is no other here of whom I know, senor," 
 the old man answered. " Yes, I worked there in 
 the days when silver was pouring out like a river ; 
 but that was long ago, before the times of fight- 
 ing." 
 
 " So long ago," said Fernando, " that I know 
 not where to find another man who has seen with 
 his own eyes the great veto, madre. And now I 
 want you, Rosalio, to tell me exactly where it lay 
 when you saw it last." 
 
 He was not looking up now, so he did not see 
 how keen the light in the dark eyes suddenly 
 became ; but Rosalio paused for a moment, as if 
 for consideration, before he answered. Then,
 
 THE LOST LODE. 33 
 
 "How can I tell you that, senor, when you do 
 not know the mine ? " he asked slowly. 
 
 " I know it quite well already, and I shall soon 
 know it better," Fernando replied. " I am going 
 to take charge of the work, and I wish to know 
 where to seek for the lost lode." 
 
 " You ! you are going to work the mine ! " the 
 old man said with astonishment. " And you wish 
 to find the veto, madre for the strangers who 
 possess it now?" 
 
 " Perhaps," said Fernando drily. " At least I 
 wish to know where lies the best prospect of find- 
 ing it ; and I will pay well for the information, 
 if you can give it to me." 
 
 There was a farther pause, and then the old man 
 squatted down on the ground beside the chair, 
 and looked into his visitor's face with an expression 
 which made the heart of the latter for a moment 
 almost cease beating, so full of meaning was it. 
 
 " Senor," said the old miner gravely, " it will be 
 well if you speak plainly to me. It has not 
 been long since you came and paid me to give no 
 hint of what I knew to those who are now work- 
 ing the mine. If they found the great lode of 
 themselves, you said, it was well ; but there was no 
 reason why we should give information to help 
 them to it. I could guess your reasons for this 
 very well ; and, even had I not been able to do 
 so, your money was good, and I have held my 
 tongue although, indeed, I have not been with- 
 (3)
 
 34 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 out thought that the senor gringo might pay me 
 even better for what I know." 
 
 " You old traitor ! " muttered Fernando, not with- 
 out a rising fear lest that thought might have been 
 acted upon, " I have no doubt of it." 
 
 " But," Rosalio went on, without heeding these 
 half-inaudible words, u now you come to tell me 
 that you wish to learn all that I know, in order to 
 find the vein for these foreigners. It is hard to 
 understand, senor." 
 
 " What concern of yours is it to attempt to 
 understand it ?" Fernando demanded haughtily. 
 " If I pay you, is not that enough ? " 
 
 The old man shook his head. "No, it is not 
 enough, senor," he replied. "For I must not only 
 be paid for what I can tell now, but I must have a 
 share in that vein when it is found ; and there- 
 fore I must deal with the man who will find and 
 own it" 
 
 The young eyes and the old ones met for a 
 minute, and the latter did not quail before the 
 angry light which shone in the former. The 
 steady gaze of those keen bright orbs was indeed 
 the thing which told Fernando that the old Indian 
 held him in his power. Whatever his terms, they 
 must be acceded to, or else he might carry to 
 Vyner a tale that would sweep away all hope of 
 his (Fernando's) ever finding the great lost lode. 
 So, his resolve was quickly taken Rosalio must 
 know all, and be so closely bound by chains of
 
 THE LOST LODE. 35 
 
 interest that treachery would become impossible. 
 Therefore it was with a strong effort to control 
 himself that he spoke : 
 
 " Whether you understand me or not, at least I 
 understand you, Rosalio and that very well. 
 And if what you can tell proves to be of real value, 
 you shall have your terms ; for when that vein is 
 found, I or no other man, will be its owner. I 
 wish to know where to look for it, in order that it 
 may not be found at present. Now tell me all that 
 you know, and I will give you a hundred dollars 
 for the information. 
 
 " Five hundred, senor, no less," the other an- 
 swered calmly, "because I do not boast, but speak 
 the truth, when I say that I know where the veta 
 madre may be found. There are tales that it came 
 to an end, that the ore no longer paid. That is 
 not true. Those tales were spread to save the mine 
 in times of danger ; and I was one of the three 
 men who covered up the lode and blockaded the 
 passages that led to it. We were sworn never to 
 betray the secret ; but all are dead now save me, 
 both of those who ordered and those who did the 
 work ; so there is no further reason why I should 
 keep the oath. And I have only waited to find 
 who will be likely to pay the most for what I can 
 tell." 
 
 "If this be true," said Fernando, who had 
 grown very pale, there is no need of your inform- 
 ation. We have only to clear out all the old pas-
 
 36 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 sages and workings until we find the vein where 
 you left it." 
 
 The old man made an indifferent gesture with 
 his hands and shoulders. " Try," he said, lacon- 
 ically, "and when you have failed you will be glad 
 to come to Rosalio. We did not do our work by 
 halves." 
 
 " And if I believe you, and, to save time and 
 labor, pay even the price you ask for what you 
 can tell, are you sure enough of yourself to be 
 certain that in all these years you have forgotten 
 nothing ? " 
 
 "Nothing!" was the firm answer. "It is 
 clearer here" he touched his head " than things 
 which happened yesterday. I have asked the men 
 now working in the mine where they are seeking 
 the lode, and I smiled when they told me. For 
 they will never find it there." 
 
 " I am sure of that," said Fernando, " and it is 
 because I wish to remain sure of it that I go into 
 the mine. Now, understand that this is but the 
 beginning of things between us. I will come 
 again, and then we will arrange everything. 
 Meanwhile take this " there was the click of 
 silver " and be as silent as if thou, too, were dead 
 like the rest." 
 
 " I have been silent for thirty years," the old 
 Indian answered with dignity, "and it is not 
 likely I shall speak now without good reason." 
 
 This was so true that Fernando felt he had nothing
 
 LOSt LODE. 87 
 
 to fear as he rode away from the door of the hum- 
 ble dwelling that sheltered so good a secret. And 
 now to see Vyner ! But, knowing that gentleman 
 was riot likely to be astir so early, he went to the 
 home of a friend, breakfasted, and two hours later 
 presented himself at the door of the house where 
 the young Englishman had his quarters. 
 
 These were as luxurious as they could be made 
 in such a place, and with the limited means of 
 transportation at command. Vyner had rented 
 one of the best houses in the town, and brought, 
 in ox-carts, and on mule-back, the furniture which 
 filled his rooms, from a city more than a hundred 
 miles distant. From a flowery patio, surrounded 
 by brick-paved, tile-roofed corridors, Fernando was 
 shown into a sala the floor of which was covered 
 with rugs, while easy-chairs and couches were 
 placed about carelessly in a manner strange to 
 Mexican eyes, tables were covered with books and 
 papers, and extended in a long, cane chair by one 
 of these, smoking and reading, was Vyner himself. 
 
 He looked up, threw down his paper, and rose 
 with a cordial air when he saw who was his vis- 
 itor. It struck Fernando that never had the usu- 
 ally languid and supercilious man met him so 
 graciously before. 
 
 " Ah, Sefior Sandoval," he said, " I am very 
 glad to see you. Pray be seated, and let me offer 
 you some refreshment after your ride." 
 
 " Many thanks, sefior," Fernando replied, with 
 
 449310
 
 88 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 the courteous gesture of the hand which signifies 
 a negative ; " I have just breakfasted. I was un- 
 fortunate in being absent from home when you 
 called to see me yesterday, but my father delivered 
 your message to me, and so I am here." 
 
 " To tell me, I hope, that you will accept my 
 proposal," said Vyner. " Pray take a cigar. I 
 can recommend them as good. I am well aware," 
 he went on, after the cigar had been accepted, 
 " that I may have seemed a little presumptuous 
 in making such a proposal. But you have an in- 
 terest in the mine almost as great as ours; for 
 unless we can find the value promised, we shall 
 not, of course, purchase it ; and so it occurred to 
 me that you might be willing to do anything that 
 you could to insure success." 
 
 " Fernando's throat seemed a little husky, so 
 that he could not reply at once ; but after a mo- 
 ment he answered that it was certainly very much 
 to his interest that the present owners should suc- 
 ceed in working the mine, and that his best efforts 
 were at their service to assist in securing that 
 success. 
 
 "I had no doubt of it," said Vyner, "and there- 
 fore I offered you a position which under other 
 circumstances I am aware that it would hardly be 
 worth your while to accept. But, since our inter- 
 est lies in the same direction, we must work to- 
 gether to win success as soon as possible. My 
 people in London are urging me to find the veta
 
 THE LOST LODE. 39 
 
 madre, and I am sparing no effort to do so ; but I 
 need a Mexican to superintend the work, one who 
 will understand and can manage the men, and 
 whose interest, like my own, is to discover the lost 
 lode as speedily as possible. Therefore I have ap- 
 plied to you." 
 
 Perhaps Fernando had never felt until now how 
 difficult was the part he had undertaken to play ; 
 for it is one thing to plot treachery, and another 
 to execute it in the face of trust. Blinded by pas- 
 sionate, overmastering desire, he had not thought 
 of all the dissimulation and double-dealing in- 
 volved in the course upon which he had entered. 
 For one moment he hesitated. Even yet it was 
 not too late ; he might still decline to enter into 
 this man's service, though keeping his own coun- 
 sel regarding what he knew. Guadalupe's im- 
 ploring eyes rose before him , but so strangely are 
 human hearts constituted, that it was her image 
 which steeled his wavering resolve. No, the road 
 upon which he had entered was the road that led 
 to her ; and he would take it, no matter through 
 what dark ways of deception it led, even though 
 the foul fiend stood at the end ! But in order to 
 excuse his hesitation he said : 
 
 " There is one obstacle to my accepting the po- 
 sition you offer, senor I have no practical knowl- 
 edge of mining." 
 
 " That is not necessary," Vyner replied, as he 
 had already replied to the same objection from Ig-
 
 40 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 nacio. " I shall direct the work ; you will only 
 be required to see that my orders are faithfully 
 executed." 
 
 A gleam came into Fernando's eyes. " You are 
 sure that I shall have no responsibility, that no 
 direction of the work will be thrown upon me ? " 
 he inquired. 
 
 " Not the least," Vyner answered. " Set your 
 mind at rest on that point. I allow no one else to 
 direct the work in a mine of which I am in charge. 
 I shall indicate where the work is to be done, and 
 you will see that it is done that is all." 
 
 " Then I accept the position," said the young 
 man in a clear, resolute tone. " If I am to have 
 no responsibility, if no direction rests with me, 
 there is no reason why I should hesitate longer. 
 Senor Vyner, consider me in your service,"'
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AND so it came to pass that, much to the 
 surprise of his friends and acquaintances who, 
 in Mexico as in other parts of the world, are 
 prone to interest themselves in what does not con- 
 cern them Fernando Sandoval went into the Es- 
 piritu Santo Mine as its manager, subject to Mr. 
 Vyner. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the com- 
 ments that passed freely from lip to lip, or upon 
 the taciturn but unmistakable disapproval of his 
 father; for the young man paid absolutely no 
 heed to these things. A change had come over 
 him as every one felt and not a few remarked. 
 Once full of frank friendliness to all the world, a 
 good comrade and pleasant companion, he was now 
 become what the people characterize as " corto " 
 short in speech, reserved in manner, and with an 
 air of almost moody preoccupation on his hand- 
 some face. " He is like a man under a spell," 
 some of them said, and indeed it was the most 
 potent spell known to earth, that had been laid 
 upon him the spell of an overwhelming desire 
 for the gold which brings all things, and the pos- 
 session of which, in this as in many another case, 
 could only be compassed by the loss of honor and 
 peace of conscience. 
 
 (41)
 
 42 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 In these days even Guadalupe's sweet dark eyes 
 appealed to him in vain. Ever since the night on 
 which she had spoken so freely to him a cloud had 
 lain between them which the girl strove in vain to 
 lift. If not his heart, at least his mind and his 
 purposes were locked away from her. Save for 
 what he had in a measure revealed that night, his 
 intentions were as much a mystery to her as to 
 any one else a mystery at least as far as the 
 means by which he proposed to meet his end were 
 concerned ; but of the nature of that end she had 
 not a moment's doubt. Many women would have 
 deceived themselves on this point, many more 
 would have acted on the opinion that a man's bus- 
 iness did not concern them, and that it was more 
 convenient not to know of methods which con- 
 science might possibly be forced to condemn, and 
 which would perhaps interfere with the enjoyment 
 of results when obtained. But such convenient 
 sophistry and blindness were not possible to this 
 girl. She not only loved the man with a simplic- 
 ity and directness of passion unknown to more 
 complicated natures, but the very greatness of her 
 love enabled her to see where he was weakest, and 
 to lend an agonized strength to her desire to save 
 him. She knew, and she alone, in what tempta- 
 tion he stood, what peril to his honor and his soul. 
 She could not approach him again with words 
 unless he gave her the opportunity to do so ; but 
 her eyes pleaded with him ceaselessly; and he,
 
 THE LOST LODE. 43 
 
 reading their meaning well, turned impatiently 
 from glances which he did not intend to heed. 
 
 But one person, at least, was very well satisfied 
 with the state of affairs, and that was Vyner. He 
 had no more trouble with his miners. Fernando 
 managed them admirably, and there were no more 
 frictions, no more complaints, threatened insubor- 
 dination and loss of valuable men to irritate him. 
 All things went smoothly now, his orders were 
 executed with fidelity and despatch, and if after 
 the lapse of a month, they were no nearer finding 
 the lost lode than they had been at first, it was 
 not for want of diligent work, money lavishly 
 spent, and science applied in the most praise- 
 worthy manner. The last, however, did not meet 
 with the approval which no doubt it deserved, 
 from the Mexicans. They who knew but one 
 mode to work a mine, and that is to get at the 
 metal in the shortest way possible, regarded with 
 a wonder not unmixed with contempt the vast 
 amount of what they considered useless work under- 
 taken by the young Englishman on scientific 
 principles. "The mine has never been worked 
 at all," he remarked more than once to Sandoval. 
 "It has been burrowed into, and a great deal of 
 metal extracted, no doubt ; but it has never been 
 opened so as to be really worked to any advan- 
 tage." 
 
 " It has only yielded about a hundred millions," 
 said the Mexican calmly, "which looks as if it had
 
 44 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 been worked to very great advantage. But it is 
 not our habit to put a fortune into a mine in ex- 
 tensive works before we take anything out." 
 
 " Unless a mine is well opened at the first, you 
 can never tell where you are or what you have 
 got. It is all a matter of chance, and you are 
 liable to lose your lode any time as it has been 
 lost here," Vyner replied. " Now, when I strike 
 the vein there will be no danger of loss. The 
 lode will be found once for all." 
 
 " Yes," said Fernando. There was no sign of 
 amusement on his impassive face. "And when 
 do you think that you will find it ?" 
 
 " Within the next fortnight," Vyner answered 
 confidently. " I am certain that the vein lies ex 
 actly in the direction in which we are advancing, 
 and when we reach it we shall find a large body 
 of metal. Put as many men as possible on the 
 work and press forward. I am growing very im- 
 patient to be able to report that I have found this 
 lode, for the money expended in the work has 
 been very considerable." 
 
 Fernando permitted himself a slight, sardonic 
 smile as the other mounted his horse they had 
 been standing at the entrance of the mine and 
 rode away. "No doubt," he said to himself, "it 
 has been considerable ; and you may spend ten, 
 twenty, a hundred times as much, and bore 
 through the mountain, without finding what you 
 seek. So much for your science ! "
 
 THE LOST LODE. 46 
 
 Comfortably unconscious of this contemptuous 
 opinion, Vyner rode down the steep mountain- 
 path and, when he reached the valley, took the 
 short-cut across the lands of La Providencia. It 
 had become his habit to stop now and then at the 
 hacienda, where a courteous welcome always await- 
 ed him. He did not pretend to disguise to him- 
 self from what source his gratification in these 
 visits was derived. Certainly it was not from his 
 conversations with Don Ignacio interesting as 
 these might have proved to a different man nor 
 yet from the cup of chocolate Senora Sandoval was 
 always ready to offer him. These things would 
 not have tempted him even once to turn aside 
 from his road and mount the hill on which the casa 
 stood ; but the chance of seeing Guadalupe did 
 tempt him again and again. Had any one suggest- 
 ed that he was in love with her, he would only 
 have smiled, for he thought that all possibilities of 
 such passion had long since been exhausted in his 
 nature, if indeed they had ever existed there. It 
 was a sentiment very different from anything so 
 primitive (he would have said) which bound him 
 in the chains of a fascination not easily character- 
 ized to a woman in distant England ; but this en- 
 tanglement did not interfere in the least with the 
 fancy which filled his vacant hours for the beautiful 
 Mexican girl, and made his visits to La Provi- 
 dencia so frequent. 
 
 Not that it followed by any means that he
 
 46 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 always saw her on these visits. Indeed he could 
 not flatter himself that he ever did see her except 
 by accident, and an accident which was evidently 
 a matter of absolute indifference to her. The 
 tranquillity of her manner had never varied from 
 that of the first day he had seen her ; yet if there 
 was any one for whom Guadalupe felt a sentiment 
 closely approaching to repugnance, it was to this 
 Englishman, who seemed to her to stand some- 
 what in the guise of Fernando's tempter an un- 
 conscious tempter, it was true ; but nevertheless 
 one who had offered him an opportunity which 
 else he might have lacked. Therefore his visits 
 were anything but a pleasure to her, and she 
 shrank out of sight whenever he entered the 
 house, if such a thing were at all possible. 
 
 But on this afternoon it was not possible. Vy- 
 ner was met by one of the young men Don Ig- 
 nacio's many sons were of all ages and intro- 
 duced at once into the house, although both the 
 heads of the family chanced to be absent. It de- 
 volved upon Guadalupe therefore, who in the de- 
 fault of a daughter always took the place of one, 
 to come and offer the mariendo^ or afternoon choc- 
 olate, to the guest. He accepted it, more for the 
 pleasure of being served by her than for any 
 other reason, and on a table in one corner of the 
 corridor a frothy cup of the mild, sweet beverage 
 was soon placed, together with a tray of bread 
 and cakes. As Vyner dawdled over the collation,
 
 THE LOST LODE. 47 
 
 at which courtesy required that Guadalupe should 
 bear him company, although Felipe, growing 
 tired, soon found an excuse to vanish, he felt very 
 well repaid for his ride, of which this had really 
 been the objective point. The corridor, or gallery, 
 on which he sat, extended on three sides of the 
 open court around which the house was built, the 
 fourth side being formed by a wall, through which 
 a door led to the corrals beyond. Over this wall 
 a vine, bearing great clusters of purple flowers, 
 flung itself in wild luxuriance, forming a splendid 
 mass of color ; in the midst of the patio a tall 
 palm-tree lifted its royal crown of plumy foliage 
 far above the house ; golden roses climbed against 
 the white pillars that supported the roof of the 
 corridors, and as the afternoon breeze entered the 
 court and stirred the leaves and blossoms, a waft 
 of almost overpowering fragrance came to Vyner 
 from a great straggling bush of heliotrope just 
 before him. Never after did the odor of helio- 
 trope reach him without conjuring up the foreign, 
 picturesque scene the sky of burning turquoise 
 looking down into the court so full of tropical 
 forms and colors ; the wide, shaded galleries, with 
 large, cool rooms opening upon them ; the sounds 
 of women's voices talking voluble Spanish in the 
 kitchen, and the beautiful, delicate face of the 
 girl who sat opposite him, with a rebosa of some 
 silky material thrown lightly over her graceful 
 head and flung in lines of perfect drapery across
 
 48 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 her shoulders. " What a picture she would 
 make ! " thought the young man, although there 
 was little of the artist in his soul ; and then he 
 found himself wondering what was the meaning 
 of the intent, almost wistful gaze which he met 
 more than once in her eyes. 
 
 "You will allow me?" he said, taking out his 
 cigar-case after having finally finished the cup of 
 chocolate. "It is a charming characteristic of 
 Mexican ladies that they never object to tobacco 
 and I cannot resist the pleasure of resting here 
 a little longer. The ride to the mine is a fatigu- 
 ing one." 
 
 " You found everything going well at the mine, 
 I hope," she said with the wistfulness of glance 
 he had already noted, and a hesitation of manner 
 new to her. " And my cousin he executes your 
 orders according to your wishes ? " 
 
 " Admirably," answered Vyner, who felt for 
 once disposed to make himself amiable. " He is 
 the most capable subordinate that I have ever had ; 
 understands at once what I wish done, and sees 
 that my orders are executed promptly and faith- 
 fully. I shall always be grateful to Don Fernan- 
 do for the relief from annoyance which he has se- 
 cured to me," he added, turning his face aside to 
 let out a delicate cloud of blue, fragrant smoke 
 from between his lips. 
 
 Because his face was turned he did not see the 
 swift expression that crossed Guadalupe's. In
 
 THE LOST LODE. 49 
 
 truth his words of praise for Fernando smote her 
 with a hot sense of shame and reproach, as if her- 
 self had been a traitor ; and these feelings were 
 mirrored for an instant in her sensitive counte- 
 nance. But she clasped her hands together tightly 
 in her lap, under cover of the table, and spoke 
 with her usual quietness : 
 
 " And the lost lode is there a prospect that 
 you will find it ? " 
 
 He smiled. " It is only a question of time find- 
 ing that," he said lightly. " It was lost because 
 there was no scientific knowledge in the method 
 of working the mine. We are approaching the 
 spot where I expect to strike it ; and in a few days 
 I shall be able to report how much of the old, fab- 
 ulous bonanza is left." 
 
 A flash of hope came into her eyes, giving them 
 a sudden radiance that was not lost upon Vyner, 
 though he wondered a little what he had said to 
 account for it. Ah, if this were but true ! if the 
 lost lode could be found ! " Madre de Dios, grant 
 that it may be so ! " the girl whispered to her- 
 self. Whether Fernando had failed in his plans, 
 or whether he had abandoned them, did not mat- 
 ter very much so long as the mercy of Heaven 
 saved him from actual treachery and dishonor. A 
 wonderful sweetness was in her face as she looked 
 at Vyner. 
 
 " I hope that it may be so, seilor," she said earn- 
 estly. " I trust that you may find the lode very 
 4
 
 50 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 soon. For you must be in much suspense until it 
 is reached, not knowing if it has been exhausted 
 or not. My cousin does not spare himself in your 
 service," she added, glad not to shrink from men- 
 tioning Fernando's connection with the mine. 
 " We hardly see him at all. Night as well as day 
 he is at the mine." 
 
 " Don Fernando is very vigilant," said Vyner, 
 "but I am not responsible for monopolizing so 
 much of his time, senorita. Of late we have not 
 been working in the mine at night." 
 
 He did not think of the significance his words 
 might bear until he was startled by their effect 
 upon her. The light died out of her eyes as sud- 
 denly as the flame of a candle is extinguished, 
 and she turned pale to the lips. Vyner could not 
 doubt that his information had dealt a blow how 
 deep he could only guess by the expression of her 
 face. He saw at once that Fernando had cloaked 
 absences from home by a pretext of work in the 
 mine that did not exist; but why Guadalupe 
 should be so much concerned thereat he did not 
 know. He was only sorry that he had so abruptly 
 enlightened her. 
 
 " It is possible," he added, hesitating a little, in 
 his doubt what to say, " that he may have been 
 working some of the men at night without con- 
 sulting me. He, too, is very anxious to find the 
 lode." 
 
 " Yes," said Guadalupe. Her lips felt dry and
 
 THE LOST LODE. 51 
 
 stiff, as she uttered the word that seemed to her to 
 contain a terrible irony of assent. Anxious to 
 find the lode ! That, then, was what Fernando 
 was doing in the long nights when she had lain 
 awake, listening vainly for his coming and pray- 
 ing for him. Her heart turned sick with the re- 
 vulsion from the hope of a moment before, and 
 she dropped her eyes that Vyner might not read 
 in them the fear that filled her soul. 
 
 He read enough, however, to see that she was 
 much disturbed, and that his pleasant hour was 
 over. With a very sincere inward malediction 
 upon Fernando, he rose to go. " There is some 
 mystery," he thought, as he rode away. " That 
 cousin of hers is after some mischief, which she 
 suspects. But what is it to her ? "
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN the strange chances of human affairs it is 
 sometimes difficult to say what is due to accident, 
 and what to that powerful yet seemingly blind in- 
 fluence which the ancients called Fate, and for 
 which the moderns have found no better name ; 
 but it was apparently an accident, pure and sim- 
 ple, that turned Vyner's conjectures regarding 
 Guadalupe, and her concern over her cousin's ab- 
 sence, into the channel of suspicion regarding the 
 mine. 
 
 It was about an hour after he had left the haci- 
 enda, as he was nearing the town, riding slowly in 
 the short but exquisite interval between sunset 
 and nightfall, that he overtook a man walking 
 with long, elastic steps by the side of the road, 
 who turned and saluted him. Vyner knew him 
 at once as one of the miners, whose stalwart 
 frame and intelligent face he had often remarked, 
 and in this idle moment there seemed nothing bet- 
 ter to do than to draw rein by his side and ex- 
 change a few words, while observing the effective 
 picture he made as he kept step easily with the 
 horse a tall, straight, finely-formed figure, with 
 head superbly poised and features of striking reg- 
 ularity, the clear bronze of his skin contrasting 
 (52)
 
 THE LOST LObfi. 63 
 
 with his white cotton garments and the red 
 blanket he carried flung over his shoulder. 
 
 " And so, Antonio," said Vyner, " you are on 
 your way into town. It is a long walk after a 
 day's work; do you take it every night?" 
 
 "Yes, senor," the man answered, looking up 
 with dark, liquid eyes under the shade of his 
 wide somebrero. " Since we no longer work in 
 the mine at night, I prefer to go to the town. The 
 walk is little to me I am strong. And Don Fer- 
 nando does not wish the men to remain at the 
 mine," he added, after a pause long enough to 
 give a shade of significance to the words. 
 
 Vyner was conscious of a sense of surprise, but 
 he did not answer for a moment. Then he said 
 quietly, "Why does he object to their remain- 
 ing?" 
 
 The man lifted his shoulders with the gesture 
 which signifies many different things. " Quien 
 sale ? " he replied in the invariable formula of his 
 people. " We only know that it is his wish that 
 no one but the watchman should remain near the 
 mine at night ; so most of the men sleep in the 
 village at the foot of the mountain, but I prefer 
 to go to the town." 
 
 There was a moment's pause, while the man's 
 feet and the horse's feet beat time together on the 
 dusty road and the last fires of sunset burned 
 above the blue mountain crests. Vyner was 
 looking straight before him, but he did not see
 
 64 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 either the light, flame-tinted clouds, or the broad, 
 white highway that stretched to the yellow walls 
 and masses of green foliage which marked the 
 town. Instead, he saw, without a conscious effort 
 of memory, Guadalupe's pale face with its startled 
 expression ; and an instinct was borne in upon 
 him that there was some connection between that 
 expression and the information he had just re- 
 ceived. Why did she look so strangely, so like 
 one who had received a blow, when she heard that 
 the mine was not worked at night? And why 
 should Fernando object to the men remaining 
 there at night? Vyner's mind was acute enough 
 when once roused, and although he did not leap 
 to a conclusion sufficiently to say to himself that 
 some treachery was on foot, he felt a defined sus- 
 picion of his accomplished subordinate which he 
 determined to lose no time in putting to a test. 
 He would not condescend to question the miner 
 farther, or to allow him to suppose that matters 
 were going on in the mine of which he (Vyner) 
 was ignorant, although there was something in the 
 man's glance which seemed to convey a hint of 
 warning. But this sign of intelligence only 
 made the young Englishman more resolved to give 
 no opportunity for additional disclosures. What- 
 ever was to be learned, he would learn for himself, 
 not from servants or spies. When he spoke again, 
 therefore, it was to ask some indifferent question 
 connected with the progress of the work, and a
 
 THE LOST LODE. 55 
 
 few minutes later, as they were close upon the 
 town, he touched his horse with the spur and rode 
 on. 
 
 But it was impossible to ride away from the 
 thoughts which had been suggested, and indeed he 
 had no desire to do so. His languid indifference 
 fell from him like a garment ; the mere suspicion 
 of being fooled and betrayed roused all the fire 
 that was in his nature, and he did not look like a 
 man who would be very pleasant to deal with as, 
 with bent brows and set lips, he rode through the 
 streets of the town to his own house. 
 
 There, three hours later, he sat on the corridor 
 before the sala, through the open door of which a 
 reading-lamp and table covered with books and 
 papers showed invitingly. But these things had 
 no attraction for him to-night. He preferred the 
 semi-obscurity of the wide corridor, where he sat 
 smoking and looking at the flower-filled patio 
 flooded with lustrous moonlight, for, like a great 
 silver balloon, the moon was riding high in the 
 violet heaven. Of the beauty of lunar radiance 
 in these regions, elevated so far above the surface 
 of the earth into the tropical sky, language can 
 give no idea. But just as the sunlight possesses 
 here a glory which lower and colder lands never 
 know, often weighing down the eyelids by daz- 
 zling excess of light, so moonlight becomes an 
 almost unearthly splendor, a divine white lustre 
 which renders the old familiar earth a veritable
 
 56 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 land of enchantment, and turns night into a 
 fairer, sublimated day. Nothing could have been 
 better than this brilliant light for the purpose 
 which Vyner was meditating, and when about 
 half-past ten o'clock a servant came to inquire if 
 he should close the house, he was astonished to 
 receive an order to saddle a horse. 
 
 " Two horses, senor ? " the man asked, hesitating 
 an instant. 
 
 " No," Vyner answered. " What should I want 
 with two horses?" 
 
 "I thought that since he is going out in the 
 night, the senor would wish me to accompany 
 him," the mozo replied, with a surprise that was 
 evidently for the question. 
 
 But Vyner, like most of his race, was physic- 
 ally fearless ; and the thought of taking the man 
 as a matter of precaution did not occur to him. 
 He was going on an errand which he had no idea 
 of confiding to any one, and he replied perempto- 
 rily that he wanted only one horse and would go 
 alone. Alone, therefore, half an hour later he 
 rode away, bidding the servant be on guard to 
 admit him without delay when he returned. 
 
 The lustre of the moonlight made everything 
 as clearly perceptible as at high noontide, when 
 he rode along the silent streets, between close- 
 barred, flat-roofed houses with sharply accentuated 
 shadows, around the plaza with its empty stone 
 benches, its motionless trees and plants, and the
 
 THE .LOST LODE. 57 
 
 basin of its fountain lying like a mirror in which 
 the sailing queen of night might see her fairness 
 reflected, down the streets where occasional groups 
 of people were gathered about a still open door- 
 way, or a picturesquely draped man stood talking 
 through the window-bars to an invisible girl 
 within. Once a party of young men passed, sing- 
 ing softly with low, full-throated sounds, and 
 touching lightly now and then the strings of a 
 guitar which one of them held. But for the most 
 part the streets were deserted, with only the bark 
 of a dog or the ring of his horse's hoofs to break 
 their stillness, as he passed on out into the open 
 country, where the white glory lay spread over 
 the wide plain and encircling heights, revealing 
 every feature of the scene with magical clearness, 
 while not a leaf stirred or animal moved. 
 
 The air was deliciously cool and fresh, the 
 moisture of the night sufficient to keep the light 
 dust from rising, and the expedition began to 
 commend itself to Vyner as a rather enjoyable ex- 
 perience. For reflection had almost convinced him 
 that the suspicion which had suggested itself was 
 absurd, that nothing could be going on at the 
 mine of which he was ignorant. But it was as 
 well to satisfy himself. Guadalupe's face still 
 rose before him in disagreeable connection with 
 the words of the miner; and if the Senor Don 
 Fernando Sandoval was indeed playing any tricks, 
 he should speedily discover that he (Vyner) was
 
 58 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 not a safe man to play them upon. So he rode on, 
 along the broad, white road, through the silent 
 valley, while the night seemed to grow more brill- 
 iant with every passing hour, so wonderful was 
 the radiance that rested like a mantle of silver 
 over the far-reaching landscape. 
 
 He entered as usual the gates of La Provi- 
 dencia, skirting the hill on which the casa stood, 
 but rising to a level with it as he reached the rear 
 of its large enclosure. Everything here was 
 wrapped in a stillness as profound as that which 
 rested elsewhere ; and with its closed doors and 
 high-encircling wall, the house presented the 
 appearance of a fort. Through an air so motion- 
 less and so clear sound is carried far with wonder- 
 ful distinctness, and it was not surprising that the 
 clatter of the horse's feet on the stony hillside, 
 which struck loud on Vyrier's own ear, should 
 have penetrated with almost as much clearness to 
 another ear, strung tense with painful listening in 
 the apparently sleeping house. 
 
 For Guadalupe, lying wide awake, heard the 
 first distant hoof-stroke and sprang at once erect, 
 saying to herself, "Fernando!" An instant 
 carried her to the open window, and there, as the 
 sound came nearer, she recognized that the horse- 
 man was not approaching the house but passing 
 by. She leaned out, listening eagerly, all her 
 senses quickened by apprehension, and in a few 
 moments was convinced that the rider, whoever
 
 *HE LOST LODK, 69 
 
 he might be, was going to the mine, since he rode 
 toward the mountain, and where else in those 
 solitudes could any one be bound? Was he 
 Fernando ? No one else (except Vyner, of whom 
 she did not think) was likely to be on horseback. 
 If it were Fernando, where had he been, and 
 where was he going now? Might she not inter- 
 cept him and stop him, induce him to listen to 
 her prayers and abandon the dark work he had in 
 hand ? She knew the road ; it passed around the 
 hill and after a wide curve passed near the corrals 
 at the back of the house. Could she not speak to 
 him there ? It was at least worth while to make 
 the effort, far better than to remain passive in 
 powerlessness and misery. She paused only to 
 thrust her feet into slippers and throw a shawl 
 around her, then quickly and noiselessly sped out 
 into the moonlight-flooded patio, where the air 
 was heavy with the languorous perfume of flowers, 
 through the back courts, past the stable where 
 the mules and horses stood, through a corral 
 where the great oxen lay sleeping heavily near 
 their yokes and carts, into another where the 
 cows, brought up for the evening's milking, lifted 
 their heads and glanced at her, and so came to 
 the wall which was the outward boundary of the 
 premises. Here she listened for a moment. Yes, 
 she was in time. The horseman was drawing 
 near. Sharp and clear the horse's hoofs rang 
 uow on the stillness of the night as the rider
 
 (50 THE LOST LODE, 
 
 leisurely mounted the acclivity and followed the 
 road which would bring him within a few feet of 
 the wall. 
 
 But how should she communicate with him 
 through the wall, which was at least ten feet high, 
 and in which there was no gate ? This she had 
 already settled in her mind. The wall was built 
 of rough, unplastered adobes, very thick, but 
 worn and broken in many places with the action 
 of time and weather, thus offering a rough surface 
 on the inner side which it was possible for any 
 one with great agility, and indifference to abra- 
 sions of skin, to climb. Guadalupe felt certain 
 that nerved by her present purpose, she could 
 climb it. She swept one glance over the surface 
 to ascertain the best place for her venture, and 
 then began to climb, clutching the points offered 
 by the rough bricks with her delicate hands, and 
 setting her small feet with desperate energy into 
 the cavities from which they too often slipped. 
 At another moment she must have failed, for the 
 effort was indeed a desperate one ; but the sound 
 of those nearing hoof-strokes filled her with the 
 strength and courage of despair. Another instant 
 and Fernando must be gone beyond her reach. 
 What did anything else matter in comparison to 
 saying one word to him, one word which might 
 have the power to move him! Clasping afresh 
 the sharp and brittle points of brick, she raised 
 herself with convulsive energy and looked over
 
 THK l.OHT hOl.L. 61 
 
 the wall. The rider was just abreast with the 
 spot where she stood, and in the white radiance 
 of the moonlight she saw him clearly. For a 
 moment she hung, motionless as if suddenly 
 carved in stone, with the words she had been 
 about to utter frozen, as it were, on her lips. 
 Her dark eyes distended as she looked at him ; 
 but he rode by, unconscious of their gaze, and 
 when she saw him turn up the mountain toward 
 the mine she dropped, heedless of her torn and 
 bleeding hands, to the foot of the wall and lay 
 there for an instant as if she had fainted. 
 
 But it was only for an instant. Terror roused 
 her quickly to action and life. She grasped the 
 situation almost without thought. Vj r ner had 
 heard or suspected something, and was on his way 
 to the mine to verify the report or suspicion. 
 And Fernando was there ! Of that she was sure. 
 What he was doing she did not know ; only an 
 instinct assured her that it was something which 
 would make a meeting with Vyner of terrible 
 danger to both men. What could she do ? Ah! 
 pitying God, what could she do ? Go and warn 
 Fernando ? Was that possible ? Yes, she said to 
 herself, with Heaven helping her, it was possible. 
 Vyner, it is true, was on horseback : but the road 
 was circuitous and very steep that wound up the 
 mountain, and he must ride slowly, while she 
 knew the path which the miners always followed 
 in ascending and descending ; a straight and
 
 62 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 terrible climb up the mountain's side, but counting 
 barely two miles, while the road covered five. If 
 she could make those two miles before Vyner 
 accomplished his five, she might even yet save 
 Fernando from God alone knew what ! Detec- 
 tion and dishonor certainly, and crime perhaps, for 
 if the two men met who could say what result 
 might follow ? 
 
 "I can but try," she thought; and gathering 
 herself up, she fled swiftly as she had come, pass- 
 ing like a spirit through the sleeping animals, 
 through the odorous patio where the arches and 
 pillars of the corridor lay in sharp, black outlines 
 of shadow on the pavement, and the household ' 
 slumbered peacefully behind their closed doors, 
 and on the great front door, the massive portals of 
 which were closely barred, while a mozo lay sleep* 
 ing on his mat in the arched passage that led to 
 it. This man was the only difficulty. If he 
 waked well, she must run the risk of that, and 
 hope in such case to induce him to be silent, but 
 he slept heavily, and murmuring prayers, that 
 slipped from her lips like the beads of a rosary 
 through the fingers, she undid the bolts and bars 
 that at another time would have defied her strength, 
 swung open the heavy door and darted away like 
 a greyhound into the white, silent night, taking 
 the lonely and difficult path that led up the 
 mountain's steep ascent.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LITTLE suspecting whose eyes had been bent 
 upon him as he passed the corrals of the hacienda, 
 Vyner rode up the mountain pausing now and 
 again at the turns of the winding way to cast a 
 glance over the prospect that lay below him 
 flooded with silver mist. The marvellous beauty 
 of the scene, bathed in this unearthly radi- 
 ance, touched even his sluggish faculty of admira- 
 tion ; and as he mounted higher and the wonderful 
 panorama unrolled to its farthest mountain bar- 
 riers, while the air grew fresher and the violet 
 heaven seemed bending nearer, he admitted to 
 himself that he was well repaid for this midnight 
 ride even if he discovered nothing. 
 
 And when he reached the mine it did not ap- 
 pear as if he were likely to discover anything, or 
 indeed as if there was anything to be discovered. 
 All was wrapped in the deep repose of silence and 
 absolute desertion. In the brilliant moonlight the 
 roughly-arched entrance of the tunnel which led 
 into the mine, with its massive door closed and 
 locked, had something weird in its appearance; 
 and unimaginative as he was, Vyner thought of 
 Old World legends of gnomes and elves and their 
 treasures buried in the deep hearts of the moun- 
 
 (63)
 
 64 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 tains. He dismounted from his horse and fasten- 
 ing the animal, looked around for the watchman, 
 but no sign of this functionary was visible. 
 " Asleep, I suppose," the young man said to himself 
 feeling more and more convinced that there was 
 no foundation for the suspicion which had been 
 excited in his mind. But in order to satisfy him- 
 self that the watchman was on the ground, he, 
 walked toward a hut near the mouth of the tunnel, 
 where the man had his quarters. The moonlight 
 poured in at the open door and showed his re- 
 cumbent form wrapped in his blanket and stretched 
 on the mat which makes the sole bed of the labor- 
 ing class of Mexico. His deep breathing was 
 sufficient evidence that he slept heavily, and 
 Vyner's quick sense of odor assured him that 
 there was a special reason for this heaviness of 
 slumber. The peculiar pungent fumes of the vino 
 de mescal filled the small apartment, and testified 
 that it might be easier to waken a log than the man 
 who lay sleeping under its influence. Vyner stood 
 for a moment looking down upon him. He was 
 evidently intoxicated, oblivious and unconscious 
 of everything; and on perceiving this suspicion 
 again wakened in the young man's mind. With 
 such a guardian anything was possible. He felt 
 now that he could not leave the mine without 
 assuring himself farther that no treachery was 
 going on. But how could he enter? The great 
 fortress-like door was locked, and the key was of
 
 THE LOST LODE. 65 
 
 course in the possession of Fernando Sandoval. 
 He felt so sure of this, that it was with no inten- 
 tion of searching for, or hope of finding it, that 
 his glance swept over the inside of the hut and was 
 attracted by a gleam of metal, as the moonbeams 
 fell upon a rude bench opposite the door. Re- 
 vealed by their touch, something lay shining there 
 that bore the appearance of one of the great keys 
 that are fashioned in Mexico for the most ordinary 
 locks, and, that might serve for the gates of a 
 mediaeval city. He made a step forward and took 
 it up. Yes, it was the key ; but why it should be 
 lying there beside the sleeping watchman raised 
 another question in his mind. It was as if some 
 one, entering hastily, had laid the key carelessly 
 down and forgotten it. But who? Vyner did not 
 pause to consider the question. With the key in 
 his possession entrance to the mine was assured, and 
 turning quickly he left the hut and walked toward 
 the massive door set in the frowning rock. 
 
 As he emerged from the hut into the broad 
 moonlight which poured full upon the spot, a 
 breathless, hurrying figure that had just gained 
 the edge of the forest paused with what barely 
 escaped being a cry and shrank trembling back 
 into the shadow of the trees. Poor Gaudalupe ! 
 Not for one instant had she spared herself on the 
 steep and terrible ascent. She who had never 
 been outside the walls of her home without pro- 
 tection had not heeded the loneliness of the mid- 
 5
 
 66 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 night and of the forest, had not thought of pos- 
 sible danger to herself, had not faltered over the 
 exertion which would have taxed the energies of 
 the strongest man, in hurrying without rest or 
 pause up the almost precipitous mountain-side ; 
 yet despite all, Heaven had not heard her prayers 
 she came too late ! The perception of this, when 
 she saw Vyner emerge from the watchman's hut, 
 seemed for a moment almost to annihilate her. 
 The passionate desire to attain her end which 
 until now had upheld her was in that instant ex- 
 tinguished in bitter disappointment, and her 
 physical frame simply collapsed. She sank down 
 on the ground and so remained in the shadow, a 
 dark, motionless heap. 
 
 But not for long. She had indeed failed in that 
 for which she had come ; she was too late to warn 
 Fernando, but her anxiety for him was none the 
 less like a consuming fire. Was he here? was 
 the meeting, the conflict she feared about to take 
 place ? She could not lie down and die from 
 sheer exhaustion while these questions were yet 
 unanswered. She lifted her head, dragged herself 
 to her knees, and, sheltered behind the trunk of a 
 large tree, watched with eyes full of burning eag- 
 erness the movements of Vyner. She saw him 
 unlock the great door, light a candle which he had 
 brought from the watchman's hut, and enter the 
 mine. She followed with agonized gaze the last 
 flicker of his light as he disappeared in the tunnel.
 
 THE LOST LODE. 67 
 
 What would he find ? She forgot to take comfort 
 from the thought that the door having been locked, 
 he was therefore not likely to find anything where 
 he had gone. She only longed to follow him, and 
 knowing this was impossible, knelt trembling and 
 praying in the shadow of the trees. 
 
 Vyner meanwhile had entered the tunnel, with 
 his candle held before him, but he had not taken 
 many steps when he was surprised by a peculiar 
 noise somewhat like the beating of distant drums, 
 or the sound of machinery in motion, which, com- 
 ing so unexpectedly to his ears in a place where 
 the quiet of the grave usually reigned, startled 
 even his steady nerves that were already perhaps 
 a little tried by the loneliness of the situation and 
 the possible danger of the errand on which he was 
 bound. He stood still, listening intently and con- 
 scious that his heart was beating more quickly 
 than its wont. But in a few seconds the whirring 
 noise came nearer and nearer, until he was encom- 
 passed by a cloud of flying objects that sur- 
 rounded the light in his hand and flew in his face, 
 nearly smothering him. He struck at them right 
 and left, and succeeded in clearing them away 
 sufficiently to see that they were myriads of bats 
 which had been roused from their slumbers in the 
 roof of the tunnel, and attracted by the light of the 
 candle, rushed toward it. He recovered himself, 
 smiled at his momentary dismay, and, passing on, 
 descended the shaft which led into the mine and
 
 68 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 entered its lower levels. Here stillness reigned, 
 broken only by the musical sound of trickling 
 water as it percolated through the crevices of the 
 rock, and fell into the deep pool at the bottom of 
 the shaft which formed its receptable, from whence 
 the gigantic pump forced it to the surface and 
 thus drained the mine. In these dark galleries 
 Vyner's solitary candle made but a faint illumin- 
 ation, yet even its rays, striking on the sides of 
 the rocky walls, showed now and then brilliant 
 effects from the masses of metal, shining with 
 moisture, in which, like jewels gleaming out of 
 the obscurity, the glistening fragments of pyrites 
 gave back the light. It might have been the 
 treasure-house of the gnomes indeed, to all ap- 
 pearance at these moments; but Vyner paid no 
 heed to this delusive brightness. What he sought 
 were evidences of more real value. He was de- 
 termined to discover if anything was being con- 
 cealed from him with regard to the vein if perhaps 
 the long-lost lode had been discovered and the 
 discovery not reported to him for such was the 
 definite form which his suspicion had taken. 
 With this end in view he made his way to the 
 farthest point where the work had penetrated, 
 and there, holding his candle close to the wall 
 of the rock, examined it with closest attention, 
 foot by foot. 
 
 It was while he was thus engaged that a sound 
 came to his ear which startled him far more than
 
 THE LOST LODE. 69 
 
 the onset of the bats had done, which, in fact, as- 
 tonished him beyond measure, and almost caused 
 him to drop the candle from his hand. 
 
 It was the echo of a dull, distant thud, regu- 
 larly recurring, which only a practiced ear could 
 have distinguished in the first place or understood 
 in the second ; but Vyner had been enough in 
 mines to recognize at once the stroke of a miner's 
 pick, the sound of which came faint but distinctly 
 audible through the rock, as if from men at work 
 far in the bowels of the earth. Lost in amaze- 
 ment, he stood for several minutes listening, with 
 his sense of hearing strained to its utmost tension. 
 Of the nature and meaning of the sound he had 
 not an instant's doubt but where was it ? He 
 had been through all the workings of the mine 
 and found them absolutely deserted. If there 
 were any other workings he was ignorant of their 
 existence ; yet such workings there must be, for 
 he soon satisfied himself that the sound proceeded 
 from a point in advance of where he stood, though 
 not in the line of his drift. " By Heaven ! " he 
 said aloud, and his voice sounded strangely in his 
 own ears, as it rang hollow from the surrounding 
 rocks, " there is dastardly treachery here ! They 
 are working on the vein, and they have some 
 secret entrance to the mine of which I know noth- 
 ing ; but I will find it!" 
 
 He turned, fierce determination in every line of 
 his face, all thought of prudence forgotten, all
 
 70 THE LOST LODfl, 
 
 recollection of the peril he would incur if, alone 
 and unarmed, he should come upon men who 
 might be rendered desperate by discovery. The 
 idea of going away, and returning sensibly and 
 safely on the morrow to search, did not for an in- 
 stant occur to him. Fury possessed him the 
 fury of a passionate man who feels himself tricked 
 and deceived. And one thought only filled his 
 soul to find those who were deceiving him. 
 
 With candle uplifted, ominously shining eyes 
 under knitted brows, and grimly compressed lips, 
 he went again through all the workings of this 
 part of the mine, carefully examining if there 
 were any means of access to the point beyond, 
 from whence the sounds proceeded. But the 
 closest scrutiny revealed no way of approach, and 
 he finally constrained to the decision that entrance 
 must be sought from the surface. Pausing, there- 
 fore, only long enough to locate the sound as well 
 as possible and fix the necessary bearings in his 
 mind, he took his way back to the upper world, 
 and presently came out from the tunnel to the 
 white glory of moonlight and the fresh, cool air 
 beyond. 
 
 The contrast of the dark depths he had left to 
 the divine beauty of earth and heaven, would at 
 another moment have struck him deeply ; but 
 now he was too much absorbed in the one thought 
 which possessed him to heed it at all. He did not 
 pause a moment, but, to Guadalupe's surprise,
 
 THE LOST LODE. 71 
 
 turned sharply and strode up the mountain, which 
 towered several hundred feet above the small 
 plateau before the entrance of the tunnel. He 
 remembered that higher up were the deserted 
 mouths of many old shafts which had been used 
 in the ancient working of the mine, but were now 
 entirely abandoned, and he said to himself that 
 of necessity it was by some of these that the mine 
 had been entered. He had fixed the bearings of 
 the betraying sounds below so well in his mind 
 that he had no difficulty in deciding where such a 
 shaft would probably be found ; and truly enough, 
 when he reached the spot there was the shaft ; 
 the debris, which in daytime served to conceal it, 
 laid to one side, and its open mouth revealing the 
 notched pole which, set on end, serves for a lad- 
 der in all but the greatest Mexican mines. 
 
 Of Vyner's prudence it is impossible to say 
 anything, but of his courage there can be no 
 question, for recognizing at once that this shaft 
 was used for the purpose he suspected, he again 
 lighted his candle and without an instant's hesita- 
 tion descended into it.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 To Guadalnpe, crouching on the edge of the 
 forest, sick with fear and torn by cruel anxiety, 
 time had no meaning, and minutes seemed hours 
 while she waited for Vyner's return, unable to 
 imagine upon what errand he had disappeared 
 from her sight, but fearing still that he might 
 meet Fernando, and only certain that she must 
 see him leave the mine before she could take her 
 homeward way. 
 
 How long she waited in the solitude of the 
 solemn night and the silence that seemed to brood 
 over the great mountain, she never knew nor 
 could even conjecture. Every thought and feel- 
 ing was merged in an agony of suspense while the 
 slow moments passed. But suddenly she lifted 
 her head like a startled fawn, for her quick ear 
 caught the sound of footsteps coming hastily down 
 the mountain-side from the direction in which 
 Vyner had gone footsteps under which twigs 
 and bushes broke, stones clattered downward, and 
 in the echo of which there was an indescribable 
 suggestion of fear and flight. 
 
 She arose to her feet, prepared for anything, 
 and, as she did so, her heart seemed to stand still, 
 for it was Fernando whom she saw coming to- 
 (72)
 
 THE LOST LODE. 73 
 
 ward her, hurrying forward in a strange, blind 
 haste that seemed to take no heed of obstacles, 
 and with a pallor on his face which owed nothing 
 to the whiteness of the moonbeams. She made a 
 step from behind the trees which sheltered her, 
 and confronted him as he entered the path by 
 which she had ascended. 
 
 He recoiled at sight of her with a sharp, quick 
 cry ; and indeed he might have been pardoned for 
 thinking that a spirit stood before him, so un- 
 earthly was her aspect as the moonlight fell over 
 her, showing her pale face amid the shrouding 
 folds of her drapery. " Madre de Dios ! " he 
 gasped, and lifted his hand instinctively to make 
 the sign of the cross. But the next instant he 
 knew who stood before him for Guadalupe 
 spoke. 
 
 " Fernando ! " she said and her voice had a 
 heart-piercing tone of entreaty in it " what has 
 happened ? What have you done ? " 
 
 " What have I done ? " he repeated. A strong 
 shiver shook him from head to foot. *' I have 
 killed him, Guadalupe ! God knows I did not 
 mean to do it but he came upon us full of rage, 
 there were hot, bitter words, and in my passion I 
 struck him down." 
 
 " Ah, my God, it is what I feared ! " she said, 
 smiting her hands together and then clasping 
 them before her eyes as if to shut out the sight of 
 which he spoke. " I came to warn you, but I
 
 74 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 knew not where to find you. Oh, if I had but 
 known!" 
 
 " To warn me ? " He looked at her with a sud- 
 den perception of the strangeness of her presence 
 at such an hour on this lonely mountain-side. 
 " But how did you know anything ? " 
 
 " I was wakeful, thinking of and watching for 
 you," she answered, " when I saw Senor Vyner 
 pass in the direction of the mine, and, fearing 
 that you were here, I came up the mountain in 
 the hope of warning, of saving you from violence 
 and crime. But God did not permit me to do this. 
 Senor Vyner had already arrived when I reached 
 here. Even then, had I known where to find 
 you, I might have warned you, for he entered the 
 mine before ascending the height ; but I knew 
 nothing, so I could only wait praying, fearing. 
 But all this matters nothing now. Tell me if 
 there is no hope ! Are you certain that you have 
 killed him?" 
 
 "I am not certain that he is dead, but I am 
 certain that I gave him a blow which no man 
 could receive and live," Fernando replied. "I 
 did not wait to see how it was with him. When 
 he fell and lay a senseless heap " a strong shud- 
 der shook him again " I left him. The deed was 
 done. Nothing can undo it now." 
 
 "But it may be that you did not kill him !" 
 she cried with sudden, passionate hope. " How 
 can you tell if you did not wait to see ? Come, let
 
 THE LOST LODfi, 75 
 
 us go back at once at once ! It may be that we 
 can save him yet." 
 
 " Are you mad ? " asked Fernando, looking at 
 her with eyes of angry wonder. " You go down 
 into that shaft it is impossible ! And for me, 
 nothing will ever take me back. I tell you that 
 no man could receive the blow that I dealt Vyner 
 and live." 
 
 " But you do not know that he is dead, and yet 
 you would leave him there, injured and alone ? " 
 she said in an anguished tone. " Fernando, that 
 cannot be ! You must come with me, or I shall 
 go without you." 
 
 " You shall not ! " he cried. " What insanity 
 is this ? He is not alone. I had with me an old 
 man one of the ancient miners, who knows the 
 locality of the lost lode. He is still there, and 
 though old, is strong arid determined. Vyner 
 will never leave the mine alive. Be sure of 
 that." 
 
 " Merciful God ! " she shrank back as if from 
 a blow, though no mere physical blow could have 
 equalled the terrible significance of those words. 
 For a moment horror held her motionless. Then 
 the very extremity of the necessity gave her 
 strength to speak. 
 
 " Come with me," she said and it seemed no 
 longer Guadalupe who spoke " if you have not 
 the soul of a coward, come and see that a murder
 
 76 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 is not done ! There is not a second to lose. 
 Come ! " 
 
 " No ! " he answered violently. " Not all the 
 riches of the mine could tempt me to descend that 
 shaft again. Besides, it is too late. The man is 
 either dead or You do not understand ! It 
 would be madness now to let him come forth with 
 such a tale ! " 
 
 " And so you left him, either to die or be 
 treacherously killed ! " she cried in a voice filled 
 with a passion of feeling. " O Fernando ! it is 
 you who are mad, who know not what you are do- 
 ing. You struck him down in anger, but you did 
 not mean to kill him you said so. Come, then, 
 and let us save him, if he can be saved. Prove to 
 me and to yourself that you are no murderer. If 
 you have ever been, for one hour, the man I be- 
 lieved you, come with me now. For the love of 
 God, come ! " 
 
 In the extremity of her pleading she forgot the 
 horror that a moment before possessed her, and 
 drew near to him, laying her hand upon his arm 
 with a gesture of entreaty. Had his guardian 
 angel taken mortal form beside him and spoken 
 with mortal tongue, such look and voice could 
 hardly have been fraught with more intense sup- 
 plication, more ardent appeal, than that of Gua- 
 dalupe's face as she lifted it toward him, and vi- 
 brated in the tones of her voice. But neither face 
 nor voice had power to move the dark spirit of the
 
 THE LOST LODE. 77 
 
 man to whom she spoke. He flung off her hand 
 with a motion of his arm, and turned upon her 
 with words that like a deadly fire scorched the 
 last vestige of love for him in her heart. 
 
 "It must be," he said with a furious glance, 
 " that the man whose life you are so anxious to 
 preserve whose safety is so much more precious 
 in your eyes than mine is indeed your lover, as 
 people have said. Do not think that I have not 
 heard of his visits to you while I /was toiling 
 and sinning for your sake ! And if it be your 
 lover, why should you not have betrayed me to 
 him how else did he come here? You alone 
 knew of my hopes and my labors. Traitress that 
 you are, go to him if you will, but you will be too 
 late to save him, and you may be grateful that I 
 do not kill you with him ! " 
 
 " To kill my body would be a small thing com- 
 pared to killing every feeling that I have ever had 
 for you," she answered in a tone which expressed 
 a compassion so great that even scorn was lost in 
 it. " Hereafter what you may think of me is less 
 than nothing to me ; but once more, in the name 
 of God, I call upon you to come with me and save 
 your soul from fearful crime. If you will not 
 come, take with you the knowledge that in the 
 sight of God you are a murderer ! " 
 
 She stood before him with a dignity that was 
 majestic, her bearing full of an almost stern com- 
 mand, her face white and set as if carved in stone,
 
 78 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 and her eyes burning with a fire before which he 
 shrank. But to do that which she commanded 
 was impossible to him. He hesitated a moment, 
 then made a hopeless gesture and, throwing out 
 his hands wildly, rushed down the mountain. 
 
 For an instant Guadalupe remained motionless, 
 listening to the echo of the receding steps which 
 alone broke the solemn silence of the night. And, 
 as she listened, the thought that she was alone 
 alone to take up the burden of horror from which 
 Fernando had fled, to descend by perilous ways 
 into the dark recesses of the mine, to meet the 
 awful presence of the probably murdered man 
 and the more awful presence of the living one who 
 kept guard over him, fell upon her with a crush- 
 ing and terrible weight. She sank shuddering 
 upon her knees and lifted her agonized face to- 
 ward heaven. " Help me, my God ! help me not 
 to fail ! " was her inarticulate cry. u Give me a 
 courage great enough for what I must do." 
 
 It was only a minute that she spent in supplica- 
 tion, but to those of pure heart and strong faith 
 the Heaven upon which they call is very near, and 
 she felt a courage great enough for all that lay be- 
 fore her when she rose and took her way swiftly 
 toward the mine. She could not afterward have 
 told what instinct led her to provide herself with 
 the means of light a candle and matches taken 
 from the receptacle for such objects near the 
 mouth of the tunnel or which brought her steps
 
 THE LOST LODE. 79 
 
 so unerringly to the shaft where Vyner had de- 
 scended. When she saw its dark mouth and the 
 rudely notched pole which constituted the only 
 way of descent, her heart for an instant failed 
 but only for an instant. The heroic spirit domi- 
 nated all instincts of fear, and with one swift, 
 appealing glance toward the bending sky, she 
 stepped downward and began the difficult and 
 perilous descent. 
 
 Meanwhile, in a gallery that opened horizontally 
 from the shaft, at a depth of about a hundred and 
 fifty feet below the surface, lay the unconscious 
 form of the man whom Fernando Sandoval had 
 struck down when surprised in his treachery. 
 Since the terrible blow, given with the miner's 
 pick, had descended on his head, he had not 
 stirred ; but that he was not dead the old Indian, 
 who bent over him, assured himself now and then 
 by putting his ear to the slow and heavily -beating 
 heart. It was a weird scene which the faint light 
 of a single candle revealed in the dark and gloomy 
 spot. The roughly excavated rock, glistening 
 with moisture as the rays of light struck upon it, 
 arched overhead and formed the walls that led 
 away into blackness beyond. On the damp and 
 rnuddy floor of the gallery, Vyner lay as he had 
 fallen, with white, senseless face upturned. The 
 old man crouched beside him, his thin, brown 
 countenance absolutely impassive, but his dark, 
 piercing eyes fixed intently on the motionless
 
 80 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 form, as if watching for the least sign of life ; 
 while he kept one thin, sinewy hand buried in the 
 loose, open folds of his shirt. The attitude was 
 significant enough for there could be no doubt 
 that the object upon which that hand rested was 
 the handle of a knife but even more significant 
 was the concentration of purpose on the keen 
 face, the unrelaxing watchfulness of the shining 
 glance. Let Vyner stir hand or foot, let his eyes 
 but for one second unclose, and the knife would 
 be buried in his heart. Nothing could be more 
 certain than that. A tiger watching his prey 
 might be expected to relent sooner than the man 
 who watched him with that terrible, impassive 
 face. 
 
 But while he watched, his quick ear caught a 
 sound, faint indeed but still a sound, which con- 
 veyed unmistakably the intimation of another 
 presence beside his own in the mine. The lean, 
 old head on the thin, brown neck turned sharply 
 and listened intently. Had Fernando recovered 
 his courage and was he returning, or could it be 
 possible that some one else was slowly and with 
 difficulty descending the shaft? Such a thing 
 was wildly improbable, but it was not impossible, 
 and rising from his crouching posture with a 
 resolute expression, the old man seized the candle, 
 which had been fastened on a projecting rock by 
 a lump of mud, and with the long, nervous fingers 
 of the hand in his bosom clutching yet more
 
 THE LOST LODE. 81 
 
 firmly the handle of the knife which lay there, he 
 went forward to investigate. 
 
 Before he reached the end of the gallery, how- 
 ever, a presence or was it an apparition? 
 appeared there, framed in the rough stone arch, 
 which the light that it carried illumined, like a 
 picture of some fair, tender saint, or of the Queen 
 of Saints, Mary most merciful, suddenly brought 
 to life. Like a star against the gloom and dark- 
 ness, the beautiful white face appeared, and the 
 dilated eyes shone with a lustre not of earth as 
 they met his terrified gaze. He had not a 
 moment's doubt of the supernatural character of 
 the figure for how could mortal woman appear 
 in such a place, and when did mortal woman ever 
 wear such an aspect? The candle dropped from 
 his trembling hand as he fell on his knees, making 
 the sign of the cross and crying, as Fernando had 
 cried before him, the loved, familiar, yet now 
 terrible name, " Madre de Dios ! " 
 
 " Do you take me for the Mother of God 
 Rosalio Gallardo?" asked Guadalupe, pausing 
 before him, "that you kneel to me like this? 
 And yet, before you rise, thank her that I have 
 been sent to save you from terrible crime. For 
 he lives yet the man whom you have stayed 
 here to guard is it not so? God has not per- 
 mitted him to die, or you to commit the sin which 
 has been in your heart ? " 
 
 The man rose slowly to his feet. He was still 
 (6)
 
 82 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 trembling in every limb. The occurrence seemed 
 to him hardly less wonderful, hardly less super- 
 natural, now that he knew it was only a woman 
 of the earth, not an inhabitant of the shining 
 heavens, who spoke to him. Her appearance 
 savored of the miraculous hardly less than if she 
 had been a spirit, and the majesty of her bearing, 
 the dignity of her address, impressed him as the 
 higher nature must always impress the lower, 
 unless the latter has lost all habit of reverence, all 
 belief in higher things ; and these no Mexican 
 has wholly lost. 
 
 " Yes, senora," Rosalio answered, scarcely 
 knowing what he said, " he is living yet. I was 
 watching him. Maria Santissima knows " 
 
 "Show me where he is," said Guadalupe, pass- 
 ing him by. 
 
 She had not now the faintest thought of fear, 
 alone though she was in the depths of the earth 
 with a half-murdered man, and one who was a 
 murderer in intent, if not in act. Had she ex- 
 hibited a single sign of timidity or the least 
 consciousness of danger, there is no telling what 
 the result might have been ; but her manner 
 could not have been more assured in its quiet 
 command had she stood on the threshold of her 
 own house, with hosts of servants within her call. 
 Without casting a glance behind at the man she 
 had passed, she went quickly forward knelt down 
 by Vyner's prostrate form, and laid her hand upon
 
 THE LOST LODE. 8b 
 
 his heart. Then she looked up at Rosalio, who 
 had drawn near and stood beside her. " Bring 
 me some water," she said, with the same air and 
 tone of authority. 
 
 He obeyed silently, bringing some water from a 
 place not far distant and watching the gloomy in- 
 terest while she bathed the face of the uncon- 
 scious man, loosened his collar, and pressed a few 
 drops of the moisture between his pale lips. 
 Presently, under this reviving influence, his res- 
 piration grew more apparent, and it was evident 
 that life was asserting itself against the terrible 
 blow which, but for the heavy hat he had worn, 
 would have left no life to survive. Then again 
 Guadalupe looked up at the statue-like figure be- 
 side her. 
 
 " Have you any stimulant? " she asked quickly 
 " aguardiente, tequila, anything ? " 
 
 There was a moment's barely perceptible 
 hesitation before the man turned again and, 
 going to the place from whence he had brought 
 the water, brought now a bottle containing a col- 
 orless liquid which was no other than the fiery 
 vino de mescal, locally known as tequila. But 
 before giving the bottle into her outstretched hand 
 he looked at her with his keen, deep-set eyes, and 
 spoke for the first time since he had cut short his 
 first speech. 
 
 " Would it not be well," he said, "for the sen- 
 ora to stop and think a moment before she brings
 
 84 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 this man back to life. I know now who the sefi- 
 ora is. If he lives, what will become of her 
 cousin, Fernando Sandoval ? " 
 
 She glanced up at him with a gaze filled with the 
 light of a steadfast purpose. " If by God's help 
 I can save this man's life," she said, " I shall save 
 my cousin from crime and undying remorse. And 
 I shall save you, too, little as you seem to think 
 of it. What manner of life have you lived that 
 in your last days for you are an old man you 
 can wish to lose your soul by an act of deliberate 
 murder ? Give me that bottle and lift his head." 
 
 He gave the bottle without another word, and, 
 kneeling on Vyner's other side, obediently raised 
 his head while she poured a few drops of the 
 potent stimulant between his lips. Almost im- 
 mediately the result was apparent in the strength- 
 ening of his before hardly perceptible pulse. 
 Again and yet again she poured the liquid cau- 
 tiously down his throat, until suddenly oh, won- 
 der hardly hoped for ! he gave a half-strangled 
 gasp and, opening his eyes, looked at her. 
 
 Two hours later a faint, exhausted man lay 
 stretched on the ground at the mouth of the shaft. 
 As long as he lives the memory of that ascent 
 will be to him a nightmare of horror. But for 
 the rope fastened around his waist and held by 
 the old man who preceded him up the primitive 
 ladder, he could never have reached the top. 
 More than once he had swayed, tottered, almost
 
 *HK LOST LODiS. 85 
 
 fallen, while a faintness as of death nearly over- 
 powered him. But Rosalie's sustaining hand 
 above and Guadalupe's encouraging voice below, 
 sustained him enabled him to fight off the black 
 unconsciousness ; and at last, after what seemed 
 an eternity of painful effort, he felt the fresh air 
 of the upper world, saw the white glory of the 
 moonlight, and fell down a well-nigh senseless 
 heap once more under the vast bending heaven. 
 
 But revival was not so difficult now when all 
 the blessed influence of Nature aided in the work. 
 Like a man in a dream he was conscious again of 
 Guadalupe's hand bathing his brow, of the fiery 
 liquid she offered to his lips, and of the urgency 
 of her voice. 
 
 " Bring his horse," she said to Rosalio. " Have 
 it ready here. There must be no delay, or day- 
 light will surprise you on the road. Ah, senor, 
 rouse yourself ! for the love of God make another 
 effort ! " 
 
 Who could withstand that piteous appeal! 
 Vyner opened his eyes and murmured, " What do 
 you wish me to do ? " 
 
 "To mount you? horse as soon as you are 
 able," she answered. " You can ride slowly 
 this man will lead the animal and support you in 
 the saddle. You must get home before daylight 
 comes and people are abroad." 
 
 " Why ? " he asked brokenly. ** I will stay here 
 until I can send for a carriage."
 
 86 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 She seized him by the shoulder in her despera- 
 tion arid shook him almost fiercely. " Sefior," 
 she said, " listen to me ! I have saved your life ; 
 but for me you would be lying dead down there 
 in the mine ! I tell you this that you may do 
 something for me, that you may rouse yourself for 
 the effort I ask of you. It is hard I know it is 
 hard but oh, for God's sake, for my sake, try ! " 
 
 He rose and staggered to his feet. Dull and 
 stupid as he yet felt, he understood her words and 
 knew that they were true. But for her he would 
 indeed be lying dead, down in the dark depths of 
 the mine, never again to feel the sweet air of 
 heaven or look upon the beauty of the earth. 
 What, then, could she ask of him that he would 
 not, must not do ? A faint stirring of life came 
 to him somewhat blindly he put out his hand to 
 her. 
 
 " Do what you will with me," he said. " I am 
 ready." 
 
 She made a quick motion to the old Indian, and 
 between them they helped him to his saddle. 
 Then Rosalio flung a steadying arm around him, 
 and placed the other hand upon the bridle of the 
 horse. " Take him to the door of his house and 
 leave him there in charge of his servants," said 
 Guadalupe, in a low, firm tone. " Remember, if 
 he is not carried safely, I will tell all." Then she 
 looked up in the face of the man who swaying 
 slightly from weakness looked down upon her.
 
 THE LOST LODE;. 87 
 
 To his dying day he will never forget that coun- 
 tenance, white as carven marble, with its dark, 
 luminous, mournful eyes, on which the moonlight 
 fell. 
 
 "Senor," she said, "if I remind you again of 
 what I have done for you, it is only that I ask a 
 pledge of you. Promise me that you will be si- 
 lent about the events of this night. Make what 
 use you will of all that you have learned but tell 
 nothing of how you learned it, or of how you 
 have suffered. This is much to ask, but I do ask 
 it of you in exchange for your life." 
 
 " I will be as silent as the grave from which you 
 have saved me," he answered solemnly. " I prom- 
 ise you that on my honor." 
 
 He almost thought that she smiled, so sweet a 
 relaxation came to the tense lines about her lips. 
 She looked at him gratefully. One would have 
 thought that it was her own life which had been 
 saved. 
 
 " Thank you," she said softly. " God keep you 
 and restore you soon to health." 
 
 She made a motion to the silent figure at the 
 horse's side. Quickly the man stepped out in the 
 long stride of his race, keeping step easily with 
 the animal, and they passed away down the moun- 
 tain, leaving her alone in the still glory of the 
 solemn night.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE little Mexican town rang next morning 
 with the news that the English sefior of the Es- 
 piritu Santo Mine had been nearly murdered, and 
 left mysteriously in an insensible condition at his 
 own door. The mozo who slept in the vestibule 
 had been roused by a loud knocking, but by the time 
 he had sleepily risen from his mat, shaken him- 
 self, and unbarred the heavy portals, he found no 
 one except his master, leaning forward in a state 
 of semi-unconsciousness on the neck of his horse, 
 which stood motionless, as if possessing a knowl- 
 edge that all was not right with the rider. Moon- 
 light still lay white over the earth, but the first 
 faint flush of dawn was in the eastern sky, as the 
 astonished servant looked up and down the long, 
 silent street and found no sign of any living fig- 
 ure. Whoever had given the summons which 
 roused him had, when assured of his approach, fled 
 swiftly and vanished completely. Wondering and 
 foreboding, the man approached his master and 
 lifted him from the saddle. Vyner made one last 
 effort to do what was necessary ; but nature had 
 been taxed to its utmost. He reeled as if drunken, 
 caught the mozo's arm, and would have fallen 
 heavily had not that arm interposed and saved 
 (88)
 
 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 him. The man laid him down within the thresh- 
 old and roused the other servants. Together they 
 bore him to his bed and summoned a doctor, who 
 found him unconscious from an injury on the 
 head which he at once pronounced to have been 
 caused by a blow that came narrowly near frac- 
 turing the skull, and the consequence of which 
 might prove very serious. 
 
 That they were less serious than he anticipated 
 reflected no discredit upon his professional fore- 
 sight. The patient had a strong constitution and 
 probably a very hard head also; for the concus- 
 sion of the brain from which he suffered did not 
 lead to brain fever, as the doctor feared it would. 
 After a few days the stupor passed, and the mind 
 began to act again slowly going back over the 
 events of the night which would henceforth stand 
 out from all other nights in his memory. 
 
 For as he lay, weak in body and by no means 
 strong as regarded mental processes, one face 
 dominated all that he remembered of this night 
 a pale, beautiful face, at which he had gazed out 
 of a black mist of unconsciousness like unto death, 
 in the dark depths of the mine, and again in the 
 white lustre of the moonbeams upon the surface 
 of the earth. He might have thought his memory 
 of it a delusion but for the fact that his recollec- 
 tion, dim enough on other points, was most clear 
 and insistent with regard to all that Guadalupe 
 had said and done. But how did she come to be
 
 90 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 there ? What possible influence had brought the 
 carefully guarded maiden to that lonely mountain 
 at such an hour? Judging the strength of the in- 
 fluence by the peril incurred, he said to himself 
 that it must have been powerful beyond all meas- 
 ure of expression. Was it for the sake of the 
 cousin whom he had found so treacherously en- 
 gaged in betraying himself? But how could her 
 presence advantage Fernando, absorbed as he was 
 in feverish work? Could it possibly, then, have 
 been for him, Vyner, that she had set at naught 
 all fear, risked all dangers? Had she by some 
 strange chance learned of his peril and come to 
 save him? It must be so since what but the 
 compelling force of love, that counts no obsta- 
 cles and considers no dangers where the safety of 
 the loved one is concerned, could have nerved a 
 delicate girl to the descent into the mine where 
 she had found him. 
 
 And as he laid this flattering belief to his heart 
 he felt that heart beating as it had never throbbed 
 before. He knew now how much Guadalupe's 
 apparent indifference had held in check his passion 
 for her, since in the thought of what she had done 
 and dared for him it burst all bounds and seemed 
 to pour like fire through his veins. Had he 
 fancied that he had outlived such possibilities of 
 feeling? Well, it was worth while to have been 
 spared from death to be undeceived, to know once 
 more the ardor of primitive passion, the wild,
 
 THE LOST LODE. 91 
 
 thrilling, unreasoning love before which all other 
 feelings vanish as dry grass before flame. He 
 absolutely forgot the existence of the woman he 
 had loved in England, he gave not a thought to 
 the lost lode or to Fernando's treachery. Every- 
 thing was merged in one overmastering desire to 
 see Guadalupe again, and to make her his own 
 forever. 
 
 Meanwhile he had seen no one but the doctor, 
 for all other visitors were by that authority sternly 
 forbidden ; but as soon as he was sufficiently 
 recovered to permit the least conversation with 
 safety to his health, a visitor who would not be 
 denied came the jefe-policito of the town, whose 
 call was both of a friendly and official character. 
 He wished to know how Senor Vyner was, and 
 also to inquire into the particulars of what had 
 befallen him " since it is necessary," he had said 
 politely, " that your assailant should be punished." 
 
 " But suppose, senor, that I had no assailant," 
 replied Vyner quietly. " I was unfortunate enough 
 to meet with an accident but the nature of it-only 
 concerns myself." 
 
 The official looked at him keenly and read a 
 mystery. " Pardon me, senor," he said, " but some 
 accidents concern very much those whose duty it 
 is to guard order and punish crime. I shall be 
 very much obliged, therefore, if you will give me 
 an account of what befell you on the night when 
 you were absent from your house, and when
 
 92 THE LOST lODSi. 
 
 you returned or were brought back in so sad a 
 condition." 
 
 " I am sorry that it is altogether out of my 
 power to oblige you," replied Vyner with equal 
 courtesy of manner and decision of tone. " I re- 
 peat that the events of that night concern no one 
 but myself; and I therefore decline absolutely to 
 give any account of them." 
 
 The eyes of the two men met and rested each 
 upon the other for a space of time measured by no 
 more than seconds, but it was enough to convince 
 the Mexican that nothing was to be gained by 
 pressing his inquiries. 
 
 " I understand, senor," he said, drooping his eyes. 
 " It was an affair of gallantry no doubt, and the 
 consequences well, they are not uncommon with 
 our people. It is fortunate that you escaped a 
 knife-thrust, which might not have been so easily 
 healed. And there is positively no one, then, who 
 you wish to see punished ? " 
 
 " No one," replied Vyner. " I appreciate your 
 zeal, senor," and am grateful for your solicitude in 
 my behalf ; but I can tell you nothing." 
 
 " I am sorry that you are so positive," said the 
 other regretfully. " It is mortifying that a stranger 
 should suffer such injuries in our midst, and that no 
 steps should be taken to punish those who inflicted 
 them ; but if we have no information to proceed 
 upon 
 
 " It is impossible for you to do anything," said
 
 THE LOST LODE. 93 
 
 Vyner in prompt conclusion. "Believe me, I rec- 
 ognize that fully; and I beg you to accept my 
 thanks again for your admirable intentions." 
 
 And so the interview ended. Public curiosity 
 and official zeal were alike destined to remain un- 
 gratified with regard to a matter which stirred 
 both very deeply ; for there was not the least clue 
 by means of which to arrive at a knowledge of 
 events the chief actor in which remained so de- 
 terminedly silent. An affair of gallantry was 
 an easy explanation to suggest ; but it was trying, 
 to say the least, that no one could throw the least 
 light upon the person or persons concerned therein. 
 
 At the mine meanwhile, everything had gone on 
 as usual ; for reluctant as Fernando had been to 
 return to his post the morning after Vyner's dis- 
 covery of his treachery, a few words from Guada- 
 lupe had decided him to do so. She found him 
 awaiting her at the foot of the mountain when she 
 descended, for until he saw her and learned 
 whether or not Vyner was absolutely dead, he 
 could not decide where to go or what to do. On 
 seeing him she paused and spoke very quietly. 
 
 " Sefior Vyner lives," she said, " Thank God 
 that I was in time to save him. He revived suffi- 
 ciently to ascend the shaft, and I have sent him 
 home in charge of the old man who knows that 
 if he is not taken there safely, I will tell every- 
 thing." 
 
 " He revived you have sent him home ! "
 
 94 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 stammered Fernando. He could only gaze at her 
 as if fascinated. Was it indeed Guadalupe who 
 seemed so calm, so fearless, so strangely altered 
 from the girl he had known and loved all his life ? 
 He could hardly have felt a greater change in her 
 had she been indeed the spirit for which he had 
 first taken her. 
 
 "Yes, he has gone home," she repeated. 
 " Whether to live or die God only knows. But 
 in either case you are safe as far as the knowl- 
 edge of men is concerned. He has promised me 
 that he will be silent regarding all that has hap- 
 pened this night. I think that he will keep his 
 promise. To-morrow you must go to the mine as 
 usual and remain there until it is possible for you 
 to leave in an apparently natural manner." 
 
 " Go to the mine ! " he repeated aghast. " I 
 cannot do it it is impossible ! " 
 
 " Then you will proclaim everything, and bring 
 shame upon yourself and all connected with you," 
 she answered. " Have you no thought of your 
 father's honorable name ? Do you wish to break 
 his heart? This is something which does not 
 concern yourself alone. If you refuse, terrible 
 as the necessity may be, I must speak to my un- 
 cle." 
 
 " Are you not afraid to threaten me ? " he de- 
 manded, turning upon her. " Does your infatua- 
 tion for your new lover carry you so far that you 
 dare all things ? Speak to my father by all means !
 
 THE LOST LODE. 95 
 
 It will be interesting to know what he will think 
 of this midnight excursion of yours." 
 
 " I am not afraid that my uncle will doubt or 
 disbelieve me when I tell him what led me out of 
 his house alone, in the night, ' she answered. " But 
 I hope that he may be spaied the knowledge of 
 how I went to save his son from being detected in 
 treachery, and found him flying with blood upon 
 his hand and soul. No more, Fernando let us 
 talk no more ! The dead have no need of words, 
 and you and I are dead to each other henceforth. 
 Only remember that you must go to the mine to- 
 morrow and that if you do not I shall tell my 
 uncle all." 
 
 She drew the shrouding folds of her drapery 
 closer about her face and made a movement to 
 pass on, but Fernando put out his hand and stop- 
 ped her. 
 
 " One moment ! " he said hoarsely. " Do you 
 believe that Vyner will keep his promise and be 
 silent ? " 
 
 " I believe it," she answered. 
 
 " And if not? " 
 
 " If not, could anything be worse than the con- 
 fession which your own flight would make ? Ah, 
 for your father's sake, be a man, Fernando ! 
 Spare him the knowledge of that which his best- 
 loved son, the pride of his heart, has become ! " 
 
 " And you and you, Guadalupe ! " He sank 
 suddenly on his knees on the path before her, and
 
 96 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 caught her dress with eager hands. " Have you 
 no pity for the man whose love for you led him 
 into dishonor and crime ? God forgives the peni- 
 tent and do you refuse to do so ? I know that I 
 have outraged and insulted you to-night but I 
 never believed, never meant it ! Madness spoke, 
 not I. You have saved me from a murderer's re- 
 morse and perhaps a murderer's doom save me 
 now from misery and despair ! Bid me go to that 
 accursed mine for your sake, and I will do it ! 
 What do I say ? I would go I have gone 'to 
 the very gates of hell for your sake ! " 
 
 " And that being so, Fernando, you shall never 
 go there nor elsewhere for me," she answered sol- 
 emnly. " If I have been the unhappy cause that 
 tempted you into dark paths, I will be so no 
 longer. We will think no more of love, but of 
 penitence. You, for yourself, and I for you, will 
 beg God to pardon the sin which almost culmin- 
 ated to-night in the worst of crimes. Go, pray for 
 that pardon, and resolve to bear the bitter expia- 
 tion which follows all wrong-doing with the cour- 
 age of one who has not forgotten that he was once 
 a brave and an honorable man. Now I must go. 
 If my absence is discovered, it will be ill for both 
 of us." 
 
 " And not one word not one word of pardon, 
 Guadalupe ? " 
 
 She looked at him with a glance in which there 
 was the pitying pardon of an angel but where
 
 THE LOST LODE. 97 
 
 he would have sought vainly for the love of a 
 woman. The word he craved she did not speak ; 
 but lifting her hand she made the sign of the 
 cross over his upturned face a beautiful mode of 
 household blessing in Mexico and then turned 
 quickly and left him. 
 7
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 IT was a few days after the visit of the jefe- 
 politico, and when Vyner was beginning to con- 
 sider whether he was not able to ride out to the 
 hacienda, since he longed above all things for a 
 sight of Guadalupe, that he received a call from 
 another and most unexpected visitor. This was 
 the cura, or parish priest, of the town a tall, 
 grave, slender man, whom Vyner had often ad- 
 mired as a picturesque figure when he saw him 
 passing along the streets draped in the graceful 
 folds of his cloak, and whose dark, delicate face 
 and tonsured head recalled the pictures of ascetic 
 saints with which all the world is familiar in 
 Spanish and Italian galleries. But beyond ex- 
 changing a courteous salutation occasionally when 
 accidentally meeting, he had no acquaintance with 
 this interesting person; and he was, therefore, 
 not a little surprised when his servant announced 
 " El Senor Cura," and into the room where he re- 
 clined in semi-invalid ease the priest walked. 
 
 It appeared at first as if his visit was only of a 
 friendly nature, to express concern at the serious 
 injury which had befallen one who was a stranger 
 and a foreigner, and to offer the most apparently 
 sincere congratulations on his recovery. But as 
 (98)
 
 THE LOST LODE. 99 
 
 he talked, Vyner could not resist the impression 
 that he knew the true cause of his mysterious ac- 
 cident ; and this impression received absolute con- 
 firmation when, on preparing to take leave, the 
 cura uttered a few significant words. 
 
 " It has given me pleasure to pay this visit, 
 sen or ; but since I could hardly claim the honor 
 of your acquaintance, I might not perhaps have 
 ventured to intrude upon you had I not been 
 asked to do so by one who takes a deep interest 
 in your condition the Senorita Guadalupe San- 
 doval." 
 
 At the sound of that name the color leaped to 
 Vyner's cheek and a light into his eyes ; but be- 
 fore he could speak the priest went on : 
 
 " She is not only anxious to know how you are, 
 but she wishes much to see you. She is to-day at 
 the cur at o with my sister. Is it possible for you to 
 walk there and speak to her for a few minutes ? 
 She desires to see you more privately than is pos- 
 sible at the hacienda." 
 
 Vyner was on his feet in an instant. He forgot 
 that he had ever been a sick man. An elixir of 
 vitality seemed poured into his veins in the mere 
 thought that Guadalupe wished to see him, that 
 she had sent for him. 
 
 " I shall be delighted, senor," he managed to 
 say. " Dona Guadalupe honors me by her request. 
 Can I accompany you at once ? "
 
 100 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 "It will be well," answered the cura with a 
 slight smile. 
 
 And so, walking as one in a dream, Vyner went 
 with the tall, black-draped figure out into the 
 glare of the sunlit streets. It was not very far to 
 the curato, which adjoined the church, and once 
 formed part of an ancient monastery. There was 
 a cloistral air still about the beautiful old court 
 into which Vyner found himself introduced, where 
 a great brimming fountain filled the centre, in the 
 midst of broad-leafed tropical plants, and vines 
 that with a wealth of greenery clambered up the 
 pillars and around the carved stone arches of the 
 corridors which encircled the four sides of the 
 quadrangle. All was still and full of the spirit 
 of repose. Two or three white-plumaged pigeons 
 were resting on the edge of the fountain, now and 
 then dipping their beaks in the water like Pliny's 
 doves. Some of the ancient monastic inscriptions 
 were still visible on the walls. As Vyner sat down, 
 while the cura with a few words of apology left 
 him, he found himself half-unconsciously reading 
 these inscriptions : " Gruardad el orden para que 
 el ordensoguarde" ''Sin la Fe es impossible agradar 
 a Dios" " Que aprovecha al hombre ganar el mundo 
 entero si pierde su alma." "Si no hiziereis peniten- 
 cia todos igualmente perecereis." 
 
 So they ran, the spirit which they breathed 
 making a strange contrast to the mood of the man 
 who read them. He might have been struck with
 
 THE LOST LODE. 101 
 
 this himself had not the thought of Guadalupe 
 near at hand banished all possible reflections upon 
 the brown-robed Franciscans who once paced 
 these cloisters and thus reminded themselves of 
 their renunciation of the world and all things 
 earthly. 
 
 It seemed to him that the cura was long absent, 
 but in reality only a few minutes elapsed before 
 he returned, saying with grave courtesy, " If you 
 will come this way, senor, Dofia Guadalupe will 
 see you." 
 
 A moment later Vyner found himself in a long, 
 lofty room, very bare of furniture but impressive 
 from its fine air of space, its rigorous cleanliness 
 and noble proportions. A few religious pictures, 
 old and dim but of evident artistic value, hung 
 upon the walls, a number of straight-backed chairs 
 were ranged below them. At one end of the 
 apartment stood a table on which were books, 
 writing materials, and a tall ivory crucifix. Near 
 this was a small square of carpet, a narrow sofa, 
 and two or three more comfortable chairs. To 
 this place of honor the cura ceremoniously led his 
 guest, but, before he could obey the gesture 
 which invited him to be seated, a door at the 
 farther end of the room opened, and Guadalupe 
 entered. 
 
 Vyner's first sensation on seeing her was one of 
 shocked surprise so much had she changed since 
 he saw her last. How pale and thin was her face,
 
 102 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 how dark the shadows beneath her beautiful eyes ! 
 She looked like one who had just arisen from a 
 bed of sickness ; and this thought found expres- 
 sion in his first words. 
 
 "You have been ill ! " he said, taking a few im- 
 petuous steps to meet her. " It was too much for 
 you " He paused abruptly. He had been about 
 to add, " that night upon the mountain when you 
 saved me," but the cura was still standing by, and 
 he suddenly remembered that he did not know 
 how much or how little had been revealed to the 
 latter. 
 
 " I have been ill a little," she answered, " but it 
 did not matter. Why should you speak of any- 
 thing so unimportant ? I can think of nothing but 
 my gratitude to God that I see you standing be- 
 fore me once more in life and health. Ah, senor, 
 never, never can I be grateful enough that our 
 prayers" she glanced at the priest as if to show 
 who was included in the plural pronoun "have 
 been heard, and your life has been spared." 
 
 " Senor Vyner has indeed much to thank God 
 and you for," said the cura impressively. " And 
 now I will leave you to speak to him undis- 
 turbed." 
 
 He turned and went out, closing the door care- 
 fully behind him. Guadalupe sat down on the 
 sofa, and, leaning back with an air of weakness, 
 invited Vyner by a gesture to take the chair near- 
 est her. He obeyed ; but so powerful was the
 
 THE LOST LODE. 103 
 
 emotion which filled his heart as he looked at 
 her, that he was absolutely incapable of utterance, 
 and it was she who spoke first. 
 
 " It is very good of you, senor, to come so 
 promptly in answer to my summons. Since we 
 have heard that you were getting better, I have 
 troubled myself much to think how I could possi- 
 bly be sure of obtaining a few words alone with 
 you for they are words which it is very neces- 
 sary that I should speak. But my kind friend 
 the euro, came to my assistance and offered to 
 arrange an opportunity. This is why I see you 
 here." 
 
 " I felt your summons to be an honor," Vyner 
 answered, " and as for my coming promptly one 
 does not deserve much thanks for doing that 
 which one desires to do above all things. I, too, 
 have been troubling myself with the thought of 
 how I could best manage to see you but it was 
 not so much for the sake of anything I had to say, 
 as simply to see you. And yet I have much to 
 say, for I have my life to thank you for. I do 
 not know how or why you came to be upon that 
 mountain ; but I know well that had you not been 
 there, I should not be here now." 
 
 She put her hands to her face for a moment 
 with a slight shudder, as if the memory of that to 
 which he alluded was almost more than she could 
 bear. Then dropping them into her lap, she 
 looked at him steadily with her sad, lovely gaze.
 
 104 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 " And if I did something for you that night, 
 senor," she said, " you have fully repaid me by 
 the strict and honorable manner in which you have 
 observed the secrecy I asked of you. To know 
 the truth would, I think, kill my uncle for he 
 has had much trouble, and he is a proud man. I 
 am aware that I asked much of you in entreating 
 this silence for you have been betrayed in your 
 most important interests by one whom you trusted 
 betrayed, as well as almost murdered. I 
 am bowed to the earth with shame when I think 
 it, when I say to myself that my cousin " 
 
 She paused, her voice choked with the emotion 
 which for a moment she could not control. And 
 it was then, without an instant's premeditation, 
 that Vyner let himself go. 
 
 " Guadalupe, Guadalupe," he said, suddenly 
 bending forward and taking the two slender 
 hands that lay in her lap, " do not think of these 
 things ! Think only of what I am going to tell 
 you. I love you with all my heart ! What is it 
 to me whether your cousin betrayed me or not? 
 I thank him for nearly killing me, since it has 
 made me owe my life my new life to you. If 
 you will take this life, which is now yours and 
 yours only, I can ask nothing better of earth. 
 And I have said to myself of late that there may 
 be a hope of this happiness for me if it was indeed 
 for my sake that you climbed that lonely mount- 
 ain in the dead of night "
 
 THE LOST LODE. 105 
 
 She drew her hands from his grasp with a look 
 of something akin to terror. " Ah, my God!" 
 she breathed, as if to herself, "what is this? 
 Senor, what can I say to you ? " she went on, 
 looking at Vyner. " You are mistaken. It was 
 not for your sake I went to the mine that night. 
 It was to warn my cousin of your coming, since I 
 saw you pass our house." 
 
 He started as if she had stung him. " What ! " 
 he said in a voice the tones of which were all 
 jarring, " you knew, then, of his treachery, and 
 wished to shield him from discovery ? " 
 
 " I wished," she said, " to save him from possi- 
 ble crime, and you from possible danger for I 
 feared what would occur if you met. I did not 
 know he was there, but I suspected it ; and your 
 going to the mine at such an hour made me almost 
 certain of it. So I went and although I was not 
 able to prevent what I feared, by God's mercy J 
 prevented its worse consequence." 
 
 " Ah," he said, " I remember now that your 
 manner the day before first made me think that 
 there might be something wrong with your cousin. 
 I felt then that you feared or suspected something. 
 But let that pass. How does it matter ? Whether 
 you went that night for my sake or not, you saved 
 my life, and I love you with a passionate devo- 
 tion. I can think of nothing but these things 
 nothing else is worth a moment's consideration.
 
 106 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 Guadalupe, will you not take the life arid the de- 
 votiou ? Ah ! if you only will " 
 
 He leaned forward as if he would again have 
 seized her hands, but she drew slightly away and 
 spoke with a grave and gentle dignity, which even 
 in that moment he thought he had never seen 
 equalled. 
 
 " Sefior." she said, " listen to me while I tell you 
 a story. It is one which I came here to tell you, 
 though I never thought of such a reason for it as 
 the one you have just given me. You know, per- 
 haps, that I have grown up in my uncle's house, 
 and that my cousin Fernando and I have known 
 each other from our earliest years. But you do 
 not know that we have loved each other always 
 not as cousins only, but in a more tender and pe- 
 culiar manner. Had things been different, we 
 should have been acknowledged lovers. But 
 everything was against us most of all our pov- 
 erty. I am a child of charity, possessing nothing, 
 and my uncle, with a large family and many cares, 
 could give Fernando nothing. So there seemed 
 before us only hopeless waiting, or more hopeless 
 separation. And then came the temptation which 
 turned Fernando from an honorable man into a 
 traitor. His heart was set upon finding the lost 
 lode of the Espirifru Santo Mine. Once, and once 
 only, he spoke to me of his hopes, when first there 
 was a question of his taking service with you. I 
 urged him not to do so urged him until I angered
 
 THE LOST LODE. 107 
 
 him, and never again would he speak to me on the 
 subject. I knew nothing of what he was doing, 
 but I lived in dread. I suspected that he was be- 
 traying your interests, and I knew not which I 
 feared most his conviction of treachery or his 
 success. I could not sleep at night for thinking 
 and watching, and so it came to pass that I saw 
 you when you went by on that night. The sight 
 of you seemed to confirm my worst fears, and 
 trusting to the help of God, I took the short path 
 up the mountain, hoping to arrive before you, 
 warn Fernando, and avert the terrible conse- 
 quences which must follow, I feared, a meeting 
 between you. But I was too late for this you 
 were already there when I arrived. So I could 
 do nothing but wait O Mother of God ! in what 
 heart-sickening suspense! until Fernando came 
 rushing down the mountain like a madman, and 
 told me he had left you injured dying, in the 
 mine " 
 
 Her tones faltered, ceased for a moment she 
 could not continue. It was Vyner who broke the 
 pause by speaking; but his voice sounded 
 strangely different from that in which he had 
 spoken before. 
 
 " And then you went down into the dark and 
 dangerous shaft to save me I Did you not think 
 that it might be better and safer for the man you 
 loved to leave me there to die? " 
 
 There was something pathetic, though not re-
 
 108 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 proachful, in the glance of the dark eyes as they 
 met his own. " I only thought," she said, " that I 
 would willingly die myself to save you, and to 
 atone for the great wrong that had been done 
 you. And when I asked you to meet me here, it 
 was to tell you this story that you might under- 
 stand a little how Fernando was tempted to so 
 base an act." 
 
 " I can understand a man being tempted to any- 
 thing for love of you ! " said Vyner, as if the 
 words were wrung from him. 
 
 " I forced him to return to the mine the next 
 day," she went on, as if eager to end her story, 
 " because if he had stayed away he would at once 
 have been identified as your assailant. He was 
 loath to go, but for his father's sake he compelled 
 himself to do so. When you are able to return to 
 the mine, he will leave it at once. All is over. 
 He has lost everything. I hope, therefore, that 
 you will be generous and spare him as much as 
 possible that you will continue to preserve the 
 secrecy " 
 
 "You have my promise," Vyner interposed 
 hoarsely. " It was given you not for a week, a 
 month, a year but for my life. Your cousin is 
 safe from me. But God of heaven ! how can you 
 say that he has lost everything when he still has 
 
 " No," she said quietly, " he has me no longer. 
 All is at an end between us. I am going away
 
 THE LOST LODE. 109 
 
 it is likely that I shall never come back. But be- 
 fore going, I wished to tell you this that you 
 might understand and I wished also to thank 
 you for the great generosity of your silence." 
 
 " You shame me when you speak to me in that 
 manner," he said. " But for you my lips would 
 have been sealed in an eternal silence. Could I 
 do less, then, than I have done even if I did not 
 love you? But I do love you with all the passion 
 of my soul you must know and feel that. What 
 is your childish romance with your cousin to me ? 
 You have found him unworthy, you have given 
 him up. Guadalupe, come, then, to me ! come 
 and bless my life with your love, for I tell you 
 that I cannot live without you." 
 
 " Oh, yes, senor ! " she said with almost tender 
 sadness, "you will live very well without me. 
 For, indeed, I think we should prove very unlike, 
 you and I and when you go back to your own 
 country you will feel this. I should be as alien 
 to your country, your ideas, your life, as you are 
 to my country, my life, and my religion. Still I 
 know that love can build a bridge over greater 
 differences than these. But I do not love you, 
 senor. I have loved only Fernando all my life. 
 And although he has killed that love, I cannot 
 put up another in his place. I have been through 
 dark and bitter waters since the night when I met 
 him flying with your blood upon his soul ; but 
 now the worst is over and my way is clear. I am
 
 110 THE LOST LODE. 
 
 going to offer my heart to God, if he will accept 
 it. If not, I shall find work to do in the world. 
 But with love, as I have known it, I am done for 
 ever. Speak to me of it no more. " 
 
 He looked at her with an expression of mingled 
 anguish and despair. Never before, in all his 
 spoiled life, had he felt so hopeless, never before 
 realized that something opposed him stronger 
 than any force which he could bring to bear 
 against it. Given a woman of the world of his 
 own world and he would have known well what 
 to say in such a case ; but what could he say to 
 this girl who had been moulded by influences so 
 alien to any he had known, and in whose beauti- 
 ful eyes all fires of earthly passion seemed indeed 
 for ever quenched ? He could only put out his 
 hand with a great and bitter cry of yearning. 
 
 " Guadalupe," he said, " you break my heart ! 
 I have hoped so much, so much and now you 
 tell me that there is no hope ! " 
 
 " None from me, senor," she answered very 
 gently. " But remember that I shall never forget 
 my debt of gratitude to you, and that as long as I 
 live your name will always have a place in my 
 prayers. Take again my heart's best thanks, and 
 now Adiog." 
 
 The sweet and solemn farewell was still sound- 
 ing in his ears as he left the room, and still before 
 his eyes he saw for how many a long day would 
 he not continue to see ! the last picture of
 
 THE LOST LODE. Ill 
 
 Guadalupe, standing in the dim light of the old 
 monastic chamber, with the white crucifix out- 
 lined against the wall behind her graceful head. 
 
 The cura, pacing to and fro in the corridor, 
 breviary in hand, met him with something of 
 compassion in his dark, gentle glance. Perhaps 
 the white face of the young man told its own 
 story to those observant eyes. 
 
 " You will rest a little longer, senor," he said 
 kindly, "before going out again into the sun? 
 And a glass of wine " 
 
 But Vyner declined these friendly offers. " The 
 sun matters nothing, senor," he said a little 
 grimly. " It is necessary that I should return to 
 my house. I have many preparations to make. 
 I am leaving for England immediately." 
 
 "It is best,", said the cura. "You will find 
 that when you are once at home, your wound will 
 cure very speedily." 
 
 Was there a double meaning in his speech? 
 Vyner did not know. But these words too 
 remained with him, as he passed from the cool, 
 shaded court, with its fountain and doves, ita 
 blooming flowers and ascetic inscriptions, to the 
 white glare and dust of the street beyond.
 
 STELLA'SDISCIPLINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " WHAT ! not ready yet ? " said Mr. Southgate, 
 in a tone of disappointment, as his fiancee, Miss 
 Gordon, entered the room where he had been 
 awaiting her appearance for more than an hour. 
 " Do you know how late it is ? " 
 
 " It is rather late, I fear ; but I am ready now," 
 she answered, coming forward with a cloud of 
 snowy worsted web in her hand. " Here, put 
 this over my head," she continued, extending it 
 toward him ; " and pray be careful to place it 
 lightly, so that my hair may not be rumpled." 
 
 He took the fleecy drapery, but held it motion- 
 less and stood looking at her doubtfully. She was 
 in evening toilet for a musical soiree to which they 
 were going, save that her hair was not dressed at 
 all, but flowed loosely over her shoulders and far 
 down her back, one rippling mass of gold. A 
 magnificent chevelure it was ; and nobody was 
 more conscious of the fact than Mr. Southgate, or 
 admired it more enthusiastically. But he objected 
 8 (113)
 
 114 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 to the style, then just coming into fashion, of loose 
 tresses. 
 
 He had already protested on several occasions 
 against Miss Gordon's appearing even in her 
 mother's drawing-room, when guests were present, 
 in this, which he considered, and hesitated not to 
 call, demi-toilette ; he had implored her not to 
 adopt a fashion that was to him so obnoxious. 
 And now to see that his arguments and entreaties 
 were alike disregarded not only surprised but dis- 
 pleased him, as his countenance unmistakably 
 evinced. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " the young lady asked, 
 when he paused, glancing up into his face as in- 
 nocentty as if she had no suspicion of the cause 
 of his hesitation. 
 
 " Your hair," he answered. " You surely do 
 not intend to wear it in that way, Stella, when 
 you know how much I dislike for you to do so ? " 
 
 " But why should you dislike it ? " she ex- 
 claimed impatiently. " Really, Edward, it is too 
 much for you to expect to dictate to me in an af- 
 fair of this kind ! Surely I have a right to wear 
 my hair as I please. " 
 
 " I am not attempting to dictate to you," said 
 he. " I am asking as a favor that you will not 
 do a thing which seems to me so in such bad 
 taste, and which is so offensive to my eyes." 
 
 " Offensive to your eyes ! " repeated she resent- 
 fully. " Then your eyes see very differently from
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 115 
 
 those of other people ! It is fashionable, and 
 everybody says it is very becoming to me. I 
 never heard of anything so unreasonable as your 
 undertaking to interfere in the matter; and," she 
 added, her color rising and her voice taking a 
 sharp and emphatic tone, " I cannot submit to such 
 tyranny ! I like to wear my hair so, and I intend 
 to wear it so ! " 
 
 Mr. Southgate pressed the point no further. 
 Lifting the lace -like fabric he was holding, he 
 enveloped her head carefully, as she had re- 
 quested, then, taking his hat, offered his arm. 
 
 Not a word was exchanged between them as 
 they left the room where this altercation occurred, 
 passing through the hall, out of the house, and 
 along the walk which led to the gate, at which 
 a carriage was waiting. 
 
 They had been engaged about a fortnight, and 
 in that time each had learned several things about 
 the other which they had not known before. 
 
 Stella discovered that her lover could be stern 
 and was (she considered) inclined to be very arbi- 
 trary ; Southgate's romantic dreams of angelic per- 
 fection in his betrothed, and ideal happiness in the 
 future, had been rudely and utterly dispelled. 
 
 Of the two he was the more disappointed and 
 dissatisfied. Though not pleased to meet a master 
 where she expected to find a slave, the girl was at 
 least as much attracted as repelled by the very se- 
 verity of a character so different from any she had
 
 116 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE, 
 
 ever come in contact with before ; and, while re- 
 senting and resisting Southgate's assumption of 
 authority, she extravagantly admired the man 
 himself. Notwithstanding the jars and discords 
 between them, she was more in love with him now 
 than when the engagement was entered into. 
 
 With Southgate it was the reverse. To find 
 that she had a very quick, unreasonable, and per- 
 fectly uncontrolled temper, with a rather loud 
 manner which often grated harshly on his fastidi- 
 ous taste, was far from agreeable ; but, being sin- 
 cerely devout himself, the worst shock he had 
 received was in the gradual realization that, al- 
 though nominally a Catholic, she was not in the 
 least degree practical in her religion. The child 
 of a non-Catholic mother, and of a father who, 
 while calling himself of the faith and insisting 
 upon his daughter's being baptized and educated 
 in it, was virtually a materialist, Stella had grown 
 up in a purely worldly atmosphere, with nothing 
 but the most conventional moral teachings and 
 the inevitable result of such circumstances with 
 the most glaring defects of character. 
 
 Southgate was a sensible man and a man of 
 calm temperament. He was also in love. There- 
 fore, when the unwelcome indications of imper- 
 fection obtruded themselves upon his notice, he 
 excused her on the ground both of her rearing 
 and of the fact that she was an only child and 
 much spoiled. It would be a labor of love as
 
 lit 
 
 Well as a work of charity to teach her to correct 
 faults which, he was sure, were those of accident, 
 not constitution, he said to himself. 
 
 But the evil lay deeper than he was at first 
 willing to believe. Every day of more intimate 
 acquaintance brought, it seemed to him, some 
 fresh revelation of the utter worldliness and sel- 
 fishness of her nature, her absolute incapacity, 
 apparently, to appreciate or even to comprehend 
 the mysteries of our holy faith. Not that she was 
 entirely without good, and not that he 'could ac- 
 cuse her of having deliberately deceived him in 
 any way. She had some natural virtues, and she 
 was very much in love with him ; and these cir- 
 cumstances, as he could see now looking back, 
 had caused her to put an involuntary, possibly an 
 unconscious, restraint upon her irritability and wil- 
 fulness so long as she was uncertain of his regard. 
 When once he became her declared lover all mo- 
 tive for restraint and concealment vanished. She 
 treated him just as she treated every one else, and 
 especially her own family well or ill as the whim 
 of the moment prompted. 
 
 " And this is the woman whom I have selected 
 to be the companion of my life, the mother of my 
 children ! " he had exclaimed mentally many times 
 with a constantly growing regret that he had been 
 so precipitate in engaging himself. But, un- 
 congenial as the tie proved, the thought of dis- 
 solving it had never occurred to him until to-
 
 118 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 night. Now, however, a sudden resolve took pos- 
 session of his mind. 
 
 " Self-gratification is the only law of her being," 
 he thought. " We do not suit each other. I am 
 sure she must feel this as clearly as I do. If she 
 gives me an opportunity to do so with honor I will 
 break the engagement." 
 
 This mental decision brought immediate relief 
 to him ; and perhaps it was reflected somewhat in 
 his manner, for when he was about to hand Miss 
 Gordon into her mother's carriage she abruptly 
 drew back. 
 
 " I would rather walk," she said quickly. " It 
 is such a lovely night! You need not come for 
 me, Uncle Tim," glancing up at the coachman, 
 who received this order with great satisfaction ; 
 " I will walk home, too." 
 
 " I think you must forget how far it is to Mrs. 
 Allen's," said Southgate. "It is half a mile at 
 least. Are you sure that the walk will not be too 
 long for you ? " 
 
 " I shall like it," she answered. 
 
 " But your shoes, your dress," he felt bound in 
 duty to suggest " are they fit for the street ? " 
 
 " Oh ! yes : the pavements are perfectly dry ; 
 they cannot be hurt. This quiet starlight is so 
 beautiful that I can't endure the thought of ex- 
 changing it for the glare of gas without having 
 enjoyed it for a little while." 
 
 As she spoke she gathered up the folds of her
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 119 
 
 train with one hand, and, again placing the other 
 on his arm, led the way down the street. 
 
 The night was fine, though it was near the end 
 of November. The air was warm and very 
 balmy, and the sky brilliant with myriads of stars 
 that are not visible when the moon's broad disc, 
 while illuminating the earth, dims the splendor of 
 her sister-lights in the heavens. 
 
 Love is quick in its perceptions. The tone of 
 Southgate's voice, in which there was a ring of 
 cold courtesy unlike his customary familiar ease, 
 convinced Stella that he was seriously offended. 
 She had proposed walking on the impulse of the 
 moment, but now she was glad of the opportu- 
 nity thus afforded to smoothe and appease him, 
 not doubting her ability to do so. 
 
 Having the opportunity, she somehow found an 
 unexpected difficulty in speaking. She was feel- 
 ing at once remorseful and aggrieved, conscious 
 that she had been wrong in showing such entire 
 disregard for his often-expressed wishes, and also 
 in refusing point-blank his earnest entreaty, yet 
 indignant at what she looked upon as an un- 
 reasonable demand on his part. After all, she 
 thought, he was most to blame in the dispute. If 
 it was to be renewed she would leave him to take 
 the initiative and would merely stand on the de- 
 fensive. 
 
 He did not seem inclined to resume the subject 
 under discussion. Half a square, a whole square,
 
 120 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 was traversed in silence. Then feminine patience 
 could endure no more. Stella exclaimed impul- 
 sively : 
 
 " You are vexed with me ! " 
 
 " No, I am not vexed," he answered, " but I 
 am sorry indeed, it alarms me to see my wishes 
 have so little weight with you that you will not 
 make the slightest sacrifice of van of your own 
 inclination to please me." 
 
 ' I think your request altogether unreason- 
 able," she replied warmly. " Suppose I wanted 
 to dictate to you how your hair should be worn, 
 and asked you to shave all but a fringe of it off. 
 Would you do so ? 
 
 " No, because that would be to do the very 
 thing I am objecting to your doing. It is not 
 customary for men who live in the world to shave 
 their heads, and if I shaved mine I should be 
 making myself as conspicuously and undesirably 
 singular as you are making yourself with your 
 dishevelled hair. But if you had asked me to cut 
 my hair longer or shorter than I usually wear it, 
 or to part it in the middle instead of at the side as 
 I now do, I should not have hesitated a moment in 
 gratifying your taste, however little it agreed 
 with my own." 
 
 It required an effort, a very strong effort, on 
 Miss Gordon's part to control her temper as she 
 listened to the foregoing speech. She felt that it 
 put her at a disadvantage. It was with forced
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 121 
 
 composure that, after a minute's hesitation, she 
 said : 
 
 "You seern to forget, when you talk of my 
 making myself conspicuous and singular, that I 
 did not set this fashion which you dislike so 
 much, and that I am not alone in adopting it. 
 The style is European." 
 
 " I suppose so, as I remember to have seen it 
 stated that the Queen of England and several 
 other crowned heads have forbidden the presen- 
 tation at court of any lady whose head is not 
 ' properly coifed,' " he answered drily. " No 
 doubt the style was originated by some fast En- 
 glish girl-of- the -period, or perhaps " 
 
 If Stella had been his wife he would have con- 
 cluded the sentence in the words that were on his 
 lips " perhaps it comes from the demi-monde of 
 Paris." A sense of propriety restraining him from 
 relieving his mind by expressing himself thus for- 
 cibly, he paused as above recorded, and was 
 silent. 
 
 " Certainly, you do not spare epithets ! " cried 
 Stella in an accent of angry reproach. Then, 
 with an effort at conciliation, she added in a dif- 
 ferent tone: "I do think, Edward, that you are 
 very unjustly severe about what is, after all, only 
 a trifle. But since you have such a rooted preju- 
 dice against loose hair, I promise you I will never 
 wear mine so again." 
 
 " Thank you," he said. " You may consider it
 
 122 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 a trifle ; I do not. A woman cannot be too care- 
 ful in avoiding all peculiarity of dress and man^ 
 ner, unless " he spoke pointedly " she wishes to 
 attract the admiration of ineii whose attentions 
 are very undesirable." 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Stella to herself, and she al- 
 most laughed aloid, "I understand now: Mr. 
 Gartrell I "
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MR. GARTRELL was just now very much talked 
 of and very much thought of in the social world 
 to which Miss Gordon and Southgate belonged 
 
 the town of M . He had lately come to that 
 
 place as a resident, his uncle, old Mr. Gartrell, 
 having died not long before, leaving him a large 
 estate in the neighborhood. 
 
 It was not his newly-acquired wealth, however, 
 that made his principal claim to attention. Of 
 course it added to that claim added very much. 
 But he had been a man of note long before his 
 uncle was obliging enough to die. A lawyer of 
 very decided ability and rank in his profession, he 
 was specially distinguished in social life. Most 
 people, men as well as women, thought him fas- 
 cinating when he chose to exert himself to 
 please, that is to say. By a few he was regarded 
 with a sentiment approaching to disgust perhaps 
 because he took no trouble to propitiate the good 
 opinion of this small minority. 
 
 Up to the time of his accession of fortune he 
 was notoriously not a marrying man. He had 
 managed to live by his profession, and to live tol- 
 erably well ; but he had never manifested, nor 
 been suspected of entertaining, any disposition 
 
 (123)
 
 124 
 
 toward matrimony. Now the case was different. 
 It seemed the most natural thing in the world, his 
 wide circle of acquaintances thought, that he 
 should take a wife, so well able as he was to afford 
 that luxury. His crop of wild oats bad been an 
 unusually plentiful one ; but the season for sow- 
 ing was, or ought to be, over for him. He was in 
 age between thirty-five and forty probably nearer 
 the last than the first. 
 
 All circumstances considered, consequently, the 
 
 social world of M was excited over Mr. Gar- 
 
 trell's advent and affairs. 
 
 " An excellent match for somebody," Mrs. Al- 
 len, one of the principal society women of the 
 town, remarked frankly. Having neither daugh- 
 ters nor nieces to dispose of, she felt no hesitation 
 in saying aloud what some of her friends only 
 said to themselves ; and being both good-natured 
 and of a match-making turn of mind, she set her- 
 self seriously to consider who among all the girls 
 of her acquaintance would be the most suitable 
 somebody. 
 
 To facilitate the solution of this question she 
 determined to give a series of informal musical 
 parties ; and it was to the first one of the parties 
 that Miss Gordon and her lover were now on their 
 way. 
 
 Mr. Gartrell was not only, at times, a fascinat- 
 ing man ; he was also a handsome man undenia- 
 bly a very handsome man. His least friendly
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 125 
 
 critics could not deny that. He had a fine figure 
 and a face which arrested attention at a glance. 
 Aquiline features, flashing eyes, abundant dark 
 hair, rich coloring that was the, first impression 
 made on the eye of a stranger. A physiognomist 
 might observe, looking at the face deliberately, 
 that the eyes were a line's-breadth too near to- 
 gether, and, on close inspection, might perceive 
 that the nostril and lip had some curves about 
 them that, when the face was at rest, gave a 
 slightly sardonic expression of countenance. With 
 the world in general these indications of character 
 passed unnoticed. 
 
 Miss Gordon, who had never met him before, 
 was much struck by his appearance when, shortly 
 after her arrival, Mrs. Allen presented him to her, 
 and she was immensely flattered by the marked at- 
 tention he paid her. It was not at all his habit to 
 bestow much notice on young ladies. It having 
 been heretofore an understood fact that his atten- 
 tions were never " serious," he had always felt at 
 liberty to devote himself to entertaining and be- 
 ing entertained by married women and widows, 
 whose society was much more to his taste than 
 that of unfledged girlhood. The exception he 
 now made to his general rule was, Stella felt, a 
 distinguished compliment, and as such she a little 
 too obviously received it. 
 
 That her lover resented this was natural, and 
 that she secretly enjoyed the situation was equally
 
 126 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 so, perhaps. She had no intention, no thought 
 even, of exchanging his love for Mr. Gartrell's 
 admiration ; but she was in a glow of gratified 
 vanity, and triumphed secretly in the sense of be- 
 ing the principal object of interest to both men. 
 Of course she saw plainly that Southgate was dis- 
 pleased. But what of that? she thought. After 
 making himself so odiously disagreeable as he had 
 just been doing he deserved to be tormented a lit- 
 tle. And so the severe gravity of his manner did 
 not deter her from pursuing what, before the even- 
 ing was half over, became a decided flirtation with 
 Mr. Gartell. 
 
 Mrs. Allen looked on with some uneasiness. In 
 wishing to provide Mr.Gartrell with a wife or 
 rather to afford him the opportunity of seeking 
 one she had by no means intended to interfere 
 with Southgate's rights. She read more correctly 
 than did the heedless girl who was trifling with 
 her own and her lover's happiness the signs on 
 the face of the latter, and determined to interpose 
 and prevent, if possible, a serious misunderstand- 
 ing. 
 
 Accordingly, she made an excuse to interrupt 
 the tete-li-tete, which had lasted too long already, 
 she considered, between Miss Gordon and Mr. 
 Gartrell. Approaching the corner where they 
 sat, accompanied by a young gentleman, a stranger, 
 she said:
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 127 
 
 " Let me introduce a young friend of mine to 
 you, Stella. Mr. Wayland, Miss Gordon. v 
 
 Then, before the formal acknowledgement of 
 Mr. Wayland and Miss Gordon were over, she 
 turned to Mr. Gartrell with a smile. 
 
 "Pray give me your arm," she said, "and come 
 with me to the dining-room. I think you have 
 taken nothing this evening." 
 
 She had chosen her time well when the dining- 
 room was vacant, the music, which had ceased for 
 a while, having just begun again. 
 
 " Do you know," she asked, as they sat down to 
 a table to which her guests came unceremoniously, 
 one, two, or more at a time, as they needed re- 
 freshment "do you know that you are doing 
 mischief ? " 
 
 "I was not aware of the fact," he answered. 
 
 "It is a fact, nevertheless," said she gravely. 
 " Yes, John," to a servant who approached def- 
 erentially, "coffee and oysters. The young lady 
 with whom you have been flirting," she went on, 
 as the servant walked away, "is engaged." 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "Yes, and her financee is evidently becoming 
 jealous of the attention she has given you this 
 evening." 
 
 A very slight, cynical smile played for an instant 
 round the well-cut mouth of Mr. Gartrell before 
 he said :
 
 128 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 "I am rather sorry to hear that the young lady 
 is engaged. She pleases me." 
 
 " I thought you did not admire young girls ? " 
 
 " Generally speaking, I do not ; but this one is 
 exceptionally pretty and attractive, I think." 
 
 " Quite pretty, certainly ; but now that you 
 know she is engaged, you will let her alone, I hope, 
 and not run the risk of " 
 
 " Supplanting her lover ? " he said, as his com- 
 panion hesitated a moment. 
 
 ** Causing a lovers' quarrel, I was going to say. 
 I have no idea that you could supplant her lover, 
 for she is very much attached to him. But she is 
 vain and heedless, and inclined to be a flirt, as you 
 have seen to night. If you persist in your atten- 
 tions you may produce trouble between them, I 
 fear." 
 
 Mr. Gartrell smiled again, more cynically than 
 before ; but he did not gainsay the opinion of his 
 hostess in words. When he went back into the 
 music-room however, his eye at once sought Stel- 
 la's graceful form and glittering tresses. 
 
 She was standing at the opposite end of the 
 large apartment, with her back toward him, her 
 wealth of golden hair floating like a veil over her 
 shoulders and far below her waist, quite conceal- 
 ing the slender outline of her figure. 
 
 " What hair ! " Gartrell thought, while exchang- 
 ing common-places about the weather, the music, 
 and the company with a lady who took possession of
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 129 
 
 him at once. "I never saw any to equal it in 
 beauty." 
 
 At this moment she turned to speak to some one 
 behind her, thus presenting her face in turn to his 
 critical examination. 
 
 It was not a beautiful face, abstractly speaking. 
 He acknowledged that. A low, smooth forehead 
 and straight brows that might have belonged to a 
 Greek statue were joined to a nose slightly but 
 unequivocally retrousse; a mouth which, though 
 well shaped and not actually large, was propor- 
 tionably a little too large and much too mobile to 
 be Greek in character; and a somewhat square 
 outline of constantly dimpling cheek and chin. 
 It was impossible at a first glance for any artistic- 
 ally educated eye not to wish that the nose was 
 straight, and a little less expansive at the nostrils, 
 and that the face were oval to suit the beautifully 
 formed head. \ 
 
 But even an artist, if he looked long, could not 
 but grow reconciled to the seeming incongruity of 
 feature. The faintly pink and pearl complexion, 
 and the full, liquid eyes but a shade darker than 
 the hair, were very lovely the tout ensemble, the 
 gazer would admit after a while, was bewitching. 
 
 Gartrell's gaze returned to it again and again 
 with ever-increasing admiration, and when he 
 made his parting bow at the close of the evening 
 he said to himself: " That girl almost fascinates 
 me. I think I must marry her." 
 9
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 JEALOUSY is not an agreeable emotion in any 
 case, it is to be supposed, though perhaps with 
 one naturally disposed to it there may be a certain 
 sense of enjoyment in the indulgence of the pas- 
 sion with or without reason, just as a bad-tem- 
 pered person finds a morbid pleasure in giving 
 way to fits of impatience and anger. To a thor- 
 oughly reasonable mind, and when there is good 
 and sufficient cause for the suspicion and distrust 
 which go to make up the sentiment of jealousy in 
 a reasonable mind, there is nothing but pain in the 
 pangs it inflicts. 
 
 Assuredly there was nothing but pain and doubt 
 to Southgate in the feelings with which he watched 
 Stella's conduct during the month which followed 
 the scenes above narrated. He could not but be- 
 lieve that he had just cause for jealousy ; yet 
 whenever he was conscious of a twinge of it he 
 shrank with a sense of humiliation from what he 
 had always regarded as a most ignoble passion. 
 
 " What ought I to do ? " was the question he 
 was constantly asking himself, and which he found 
 it impossible for some time to answer definitely. 
 Again and again he would resolve to break the 
 engagement. Bat it was much easier fco make 
 (130)
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 131 
 
 than to keep such a resolution. With all Stella's 
 faults and latterly he could see little but faults 
 in her she had managed to establish herself so 
 firmly in his heart that he knew it would require 
 a terrible wrench to tear her thence. Still, he 
 would not have permitted this consideration alone 
 to deter him from acting decidedly and promptly. 
 Two other reasons influenced him also. 
 
 The first of these reasons was the belief that, 
 notwithstanding her persistent wilfulness, she 
 really loved him, and, as she often said herself, 
 would, when once married to him, be a dutiful 
 and devoted wife ; the second was partly a scruple 
 of conscience, partly a motive of charity. He 
 entertained a hope that if he kept his troth 
 he might gradually win her from her inordi- 
 nate worship of the world to the service of God. 
 If he left her and she should marry (as she cer- 
 tainly would in that case) a non-Catholic most 
 probably this man Gartrell, who was worldly to 
 the heart's core she would, lie was convinced, 
 lose even the semblance of faith she now pos- 
 sessed. Was it right, his conscience asked, to 
 abandon the trust he had assumed, because 
 labor and patience were demanded in its fulfil- 
 ment? And could he find a more excellent work 
 of charity than to rescue a soul from that danger- 
 ous state of indifferentism which is in the spiritual 
 order what coma is in the natural the lethargy 
 preceding death ?
 
 132 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 He went with these difficulties to his confessor, 
 and was encouraged by the good father to be pa- 
 tient and hopeful, and not to act hastily either one 
 way or the other. 
 
 "Do not press for an early marriage, as you say 
 you thought of doing in order to bring matters to 
 a crisis," said the priest ; " and try to be indulgent 
 to what is more the vanity and thoughtlessness of 
 extreme youth than anything else, I am inclined 
 to think. Remember that this poor child has had 
 no home-teachings. It is from the mother that 
 the first knowledge of faith and the first idea of 
 duty is acquired. That the mother's influence in 
 this case has been only negative is the best we can 
 hope." 
 
 " It is not negative so far as I am concerned," 
 said Southgate. " I believe she is doing her ut- 
 most to induce her daughter to break her engage- 
 ment. Yet until Gartrell came into the field she 
 was quite willing for Stella to marry me." 
 
 " Her change of sentiment is very natural un- 
 der the circumstances," said Father Darcy, with 
 a smile. " You were a good parti, but Mr. Gar- 
 trell is a better in point of fortune, and, I suspect, 
 is very much more to Mrs. Gordon's taste from 
 the fact that, like herself, he is thoroughly 
 worldly." 
 
 "In that respect he is more to Stella's taste, 
 too," said Southgate, gloomily.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 133 
 
 " Patience ! patience ! " said the priest cheer- 
 fully. 
 
 This conversation occurred about a week after 
 Stella's first meeting with her new admirer. Her 
 professed admirer Mr. Gartrell at once proclaimed 
 himself, by deed if not word, and from Mrs. Gor- 
 don, at least, received every possible encourage- 
 ment, in the face of the disadvantage of her 
 daughter's being already engaged. 
 
 The girl herself was inconceivably capricious 
 and contradictory in her conduct. One time she 
 would be passionate and haughty, either denying 
 that she was flirting with Gartrell or asserting 
 her right to do as she pleased and receive whose 
 attentions she pleased so long as she was un- 
 married ; at another meek and penitent, acknowl- 
 edging her faults so frankly, and appealing so 
 earnestly to her lover's forbearance, that he could 
 not refuse the forgiveness she asked, though well 
 knowing that she obtained forgiveness one day 
 only to commit the very same offence over again 
 the next. 
 
 He had followed the priest's counsel, deter- 
 mined that he would secure himself against all 
 danger of after self-reproach. But as the weeks 
 rolled away it became apparent to his rival and 
 Mrs. Gordon that his patience was not likely to 
 bear much longer the strain put upon it. Both 
 these two were working diligently to bring about 
 the catastrophe which Stella was so blind as not
 
 134 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 to see approaching, and Southgate felt must soon 
 come. 
 
 It came on Christmas eve. 
 
 By this time the young man was convinced 
 that his love and charity both together could not 
 cover the multitude of sins which he was called 
 upon constantly to condone. His love was fast 
 changing to disgust, and his charity was, he felt, 
 powerless to effect any good in a nature that 
 seemed hopelessly shallow and commonplace, if 
 not evil. Having satisfied strictly the require- 
 ments of both honor and conscience, he waited 
 calmly the opportunity to bring matters to a 
 issue. 
 
 " Once for all, she must choose between that 
 man and myself! " he said mentally ; and, with 
 an unacknowledged sense of relief, he anticipated 
 that her choice would be in favor of his rival. 
 
 The latter was equally anxious for a decisive 
 test of strength, and took his measures accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 Early in the afternoon of Christmas eve South- 
 gate went to confession with peculiar dispositions 
 of resignation and devotion, and afterwards re- 
 mained long in prayer and meditation before the 
 Blessed Sacrament and at the altar of Our Lady. 
 
 Who ever asked help in vain from our divine 
 Lord or his Immalculate Mother ? When he left 
 the church, and walked slowly and thoughtfully 
 toward Mrs. Gordon's house, the serenity of his
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 135 
 
 face was reflected from a soul possessing that 
 peace which passe th the understanding of the 
 worldly mind. 
 
 On entering Mrs. Gordon's drawing-room he 
 found, to his disappointment, that Stella was not 
 alone. Her mother, several young ladies, her 
 friends, and Mr. Gartrell were present, and were 
 discussing with great animation a german which 
 the latter was proposing to give that night at his 
 house in the country. 
 
 " I am sure there will be plenty of time to let 
 everybody know," Stella was saying eagerly, as 
 Southgate paused an instant on the threshold no 
 one having noticed the opening of the door or 
 being aware of his approach " and, mamma, you 
 must consent to go. The roads are like glass, I 
 assure you. Aren't they, Mr. Gartrell ? " 
 
 "I am afraid to endorse that statement liter- 
 ally," answered Mr. Gartrell, with a slight laugh. 
 " But they really are excellent for the time of 
 year, Mrs. Gordon. Ah ! here comes a recruit, I 
 hope," he added, when Southgate advanced. 
 
 Stella's face fell almost ludicrously as she met 
 the gaze of her fiancee fastened on it, calm as that 
 gaze was. A look of mingled fright and confu- 
 sion took the place of the pleasure it had expressed 
 the moment before. But by the time South- 
 gate had exchanged salutations generally, and 
 been informed about the party that was in con- 
 templation, she had somewhat regained self-pos-
 
 136 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 session, though still evidently embarrassed and 
 very quiet in manner. 
 
 " It is quite an impromptu affair," said Gartrell 
 in explanation to Southgate. " I wish the idea 
 had occurred to me sooner. But I never thought 
 of anything of the kind until Miss Gordon sug- 
 gested it last night. I call it her party not mine," 
 he went on, with a smile and bow to her ; " and I 
 only hope," he added, " that she may not find it 
 more like a picnic than a ball." 
 
 " O ! so much the better for that," cried one of 
 the other young ladies. " Picnics are pleasanter 
 than formal parties, always provided there is a 
 floor to dance the german on." 
 
 "That I can promise you at Lauderdale," said Mr. 
 Gartrell, rising. " Now I must bid you all au revoir 
 until eight o'clock shall I say, Mrs. Gordon?" 
 
 " Better leave a margin," that lady replied, with 
 a smile. " I can't engage to be punctual with 
 five miles to go by moonlight. Some time be- 
 tween eight o'clock and ten." 
 
 There was a general laugh at this candidly 
 vague appointment. Gartrell begged that the 
 time might be nearer to eight than to ten, if pos- 
 sible. Then, having bowed to the ladies, he 
 turned to Southgate. He was always markedly 
 courteous to the young man whose fiancee he was 
 trying to take from him, and spoke even cordially 
 now as he said : " You will come, of course, Mr. 
 Southgate ? "
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 137 
 
 Before the latter could reply his mother-in-law 
 elect added blandly : " I can give you a seat in 
 the carriage with Stella and myself." 
 
 " Thank you both," said Southgate, smiling ; 
 " but I shall have to deny myself the double pleas- 
 ure you offer. I must remain in town to attend 
 Midnight Mass. 
 
 " Ah ! I am sorry," said Gartrell, shrugging 
 his shoulders slightly as he left the room. 
 
 His departure was followed immediately by that 
 of the other guests. 
 
 " O Edward ! I am so sorry ; but I entirely 
 forgot Midnight Mass when I promised to go to 
 this party," cried Stella, coming quickly back into 
 the drawing-room after she had taken leave of her 
 friends at the door. 
 
 Her lover looked at her as she sank into a chair 
 by the fire and glanced up deprecatingly into his 
 face, and from her his eye turned to her mother, 
 who, instead of leaving the room, as he expected 
 her to do, continued placidly clicking her knitting- 
 needles, apparently absorbed in counting a row of 
 stitches. She did not mean to give him an 
 opportunity of speaking to Stella alone, if she 
 could help it. 
 
 He was determined to make the opportunity. 
 
 " Come and take a short walk with me, Stella, 
 won't you ? " he said gently. " The atmosphere is 
 delightful." 
 
 " It is much too late to think of walking,"
 
 138 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 said Mrs. Gordon coldly. " It is almost time to 
 dress." 
 
 " I will not detain her long," the young man 
 replied, and, addressing Stella, added : " I wish 
 very much that you would come." 
 
 She half rose from her seat, but at a warning 
 look from her mother sank back again, saying, 
 with ill-concealed embarrassment : 
 
 "You really must excuse me, Edward, this 
 evening." 
 
 " Then I must beg to see you for a moment in 
 another room." 
 
 He spoke quietly but firmly. Stella turned 
 pale ; the expression of his face alarmed her. 
 How she would have answered this request 
 remained a matter of doubt, as Mrs. Gordon 
 interfered a second time. A faint color rose to 
 her cheek, and she said in a tone of frigid 
 hauteur : 
 
 " Anything that you have to say to my 
 daughter may be said in my presence, Mr. South- 
 gate." 
 
 " Pardon me, madam, but your daughter has 
 promised, with the consent of her father and of 
 yourself at least I so understood to be my wife. 
 I think this gives me the right to speak to her 
 alone," he replied coldly but respectfully. 
 
 " There is no reason why you should not say 
 what you have to say before mamma," said Stella 
 half defiantly, half appealingly.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 139 
 
 "Very well. Did I understand that you are 
 thinking of going to the country to a party 
 to-night ? " 
 
 The tone of assured authority in which he 
 spoke roused that instinct of opposition which 
 was so strong in Stella's nature. Her mother saw 
 this with a half-smile and went on with her 
 knitting ; while the girl answered with flashing 
 eyes: 
 
 " I am going." 
 
 " Have you, then, forgotten that you had an 
 engagement with me, and, moreover, that I have 
 told you more than once that I do not wish you 
 to receive Mr. Gartrell's attentions ? " 
 
 " Really, Mr. Southgate, the tone you take is 
 intolerable ! " exclaimed Mrs. Gordon indignantly. 
 " Stella, you have no pride, no self-respect, if you 
 do not discard this man instantly ! " 
 
 But Stella was gazing wistfully, imploringly at 
 her lover. The glance of his eye, the tone of his 
 voice, told her that she could no longer oppose or 
 trifle with him, unless she wanted to lose him. 
 Without even an attempt at her usual fencing 
 she said meekly : 
 
 "If you insist I will not go, then." 
 
 At which ignominious surrender Mrs. Gordon 
 uttered an exclamation of anger, rose hastily from 
 her seat, and, with a withering look of comtempt 
 for such spiritless submission, swept out of the
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IT was with mixed emotions that Southgate left 
 the house an hour later. Never in the first days 
 of his wooing had Stella been more winningly 
 gentle, never in her most penitent moods had she 
 made more fervent promises of amendment or 
 given him more earnest assurances of love. But 
 the distrust with which he regarded her had been 
 growing long and steadily, and was deep-rooted. 
 He was touched at the moment by her humility 
 and seeming sincerity ; so long as he held her 
 hand in his, and looked into the clear depths of 
 her golden-brown eyes, he thought that his love, 
 which had waned almost to extinction, was 
 revived. When he left her, however, the impres- 
 sion produced by her presence faded, and his 
 doubts returned in full force. And with them 
 came the disgust for her petulance of temper and 
 vacillation of purpose, against which he had been 
 struggling for weeks past. 
 
 As he walked slowly homeward his face was 
 very grave. He admitted to himself that he was 
 disappointed with the result of the contest just 
 ended. Instead of breaking it had riveted his 
 chains. 
 
 " I ought not to have been so hasty at first," he 
 (140)
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 141 
 
 said, half aloud, as he sat down before his solitary 
 hearth that evening he lived alone and gazed 
 with a troubled air at the leaping flames of a 
 bright wood fire. 
 
 Many an evening, not long passed by, he had sat 
 in the same place with musings different from the 
 gloomy pictures of matrimonial infelicity which 
 presented themselves to his imagination now. He 
 remembered this after a while, and with a sudden 
 revulsion of feeling, or perhaps with an effort to 
 produce a revulsion of feeling, rose and walked to 
 a distant corner of the room, and, laying his hand 
 on a large chair which was set back stiffly against 
 the wall, rolled it forward to one corner of the 
 fireplace a position from which it had been ban- 
 ished shortly before. 
 
 The room was furnished richly, but in dark col- 
 ors ; this chair was covered in pale blue satin. 
 
 Taking the two facts together, there was some 
 excuse for the shock which Southgate's friend, 
 Mr. Brantford Townsley, received when, coming 
 in one day, he saw a beautiful blue throne shim- 
 mering in the firelight in the midst of the dark- 
 tinted furniture around. 
 
 " Why ! " with a gasp as if his breath had been 
 taken away, " where did that thing come from ? " 
 he exclaimed. 
 
 He was a man of culture, a man of hypercritic- 
 ally artistic tastes. He started dramatically as his 
 eye fell upon the chair, and stood on the edge of
 
 142 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 the hearth-rug at the opposite side of the fire, re- 
 garding it with an unaffected stare of horror. 
 
 " It came from Bowman's," replied his friend, 
 laughing at the expression of Mr. Townsley's 
 face. 
 
 Bowman's was the most fashionable furniture 
 emporium in M . 
 
 " But what is it doing here ? " demanded Mr. 
 Townsley, gazing at it now as though he was 
 afraid of it. 
 
 "I happened to notice it in Bowman's show- 
 room the other day," answered Southgate, speak- 
 ing gravely, but with a glitter of humor in his 
 eye. " It struck me that it would be ornamental, 
 so I bought it." 
 
 " Ornamental ! " almost shrieked Mr. Townsley 
 in Ruskin-like tone. " My dear Southgate, my 
 poor fellow, are you color-blind ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " You must be, or you never could commit such 
 an atrocity in taste as to put dark-green and sky- 
 blue in juxtaposition ! " He shuddered. " It sets 
 my teeth on edge to look at that color," pointing 
 his cane scornfully at the chair, " framed in such 
 surroundings ! " 
 
 " A little learning in this case, culture is a 
 misleading thing," said Southgate, with affected 
 didacticism. " Now, when you have studied the 
 subject of harmony in contrast as exhaustively as 
 I have, Brant, you will be aware that the most
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 143 
 
 effective of all combinations are obtained by 
 bringing together judiciously, of course judi- 
 ciously the most violent antipathies in color. If 
 you don't see how admirably these two opposite 
 tints contrast and relieve each other, why, I pity 
 you. You are a Philistine in art." 
 
 " And if you do see anything but the most nau- 
 seating antagonism between them, why, I pity you 
 still more," retorted Mr. Townsley, as he walked 
 across the hearth-rug and established himself in 
 the chair which was the subject of dispute. 
 
 " Halt ! " exclaimed Southgate hastily. " Va- 
 cate there, if you please, my good fellow ! That 
 fauteuilj as I informed you, is for ornament, not 
 use." 
 
 " Excuse me, but this is the only way to get rid 
 of such a monstrous offence to the eye," answered 
 his friend coolly, sinking into the soft depths he 
 had taken possession of with a sigh of satisfac- 
 tion. " It is comfortable," he remarked. " I sup- 
 pose you mean to have it covered with green to 
 match the other chairs." 
 
 " No ; I don't want it to match the other chairs. 
 I intend to leave it as it is," Southgate answered, 
 looking, as indeed he felt, slightly annoj'ed. 
 
 He did not explain to Mr. Townsley that when 
 he was alone his fancy summoned a fair presence 
 to fill it ; and that, in a certain sense, the very 
 discordance between it and its surroundings was 
 made harmonious to him by the fact of his regard-
 
 144 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 ing it from a moral instead of aesthetic point of 
 view. It represented to him the grafting of Stel- 
 la's life upon his own. He could see her graceful 
 form reclining in the dainty satin nest, her superb 
 chevelure spread out in rolling waves of light over 
 the tufted sides. He recognized how exquisitely 
 becoming to her delicate loveliness was the silken 
 sheen and soft blue tint to which Mr. Townsley 
 so vehemently objected, and saw the flash of a 
 diamond on a white and dimpled hand as it was 
 thrown forward upon the arm of the chair. 
 
 The charming wraith came and sat with him 
 every evening, talked to him, smiled on him, en- 
 chanted him ! 
 
 But all this had been in the first blush of his 
 happiness as an accepted lover. Day by day the 
 enchantment diminished. Soon the words and 
 glances ceased to delight, and finally they began 
 to displease him. When the handsome but cyn- 
 ical face of a man appeared uninvited bending 
 over the back of the chair, whispering inaudible 
 flatteries that were received and responded to by 
 the very same blushes and dimples so lately his 
 own, the chair and its occupant were thrust back 
 into a corner out of sight and as much as possible 
 out of mind. 
 
 To-night, sitting and looking at it, he endeav- 
 ored without success to bring back the Stella of 
 six weeks ago. The Stella of to-day came readily 
 enough, but did not come alone. The dark, hand-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 145 
 
 some face j>f his rival was persistently beside 
 hers. 
 
 The young man rose and pushed the chair 
 away again. 
 
 " What imbecility it has been from the first ! " 
 he muttered, returning to the fire and setting 
 himself to read until it was time for Midnight 
 Mass, to which Stella had promised to go with 
 him. 
 
 The volume he picked up, almost at random, 
 interested him more than he had expected. It 
 was with a little surprise that he suddenly laid it 
 down on the table at his side as a clock in an ad- 
 joining room began to strike. 
 
 " Not twelve, surely ! " he thought with some 
 apprehension, taking out his watch. 
 
 No, it was only eleven o'clock. But he had 
 told Miss Gordon, he remembered, that he would 
 be with her early. Aud so he started up at once. 
 
 To let the thoughts dwell on a harassing sub- 
 ject too constantly is like keeping the gaze fixed 
 too steadily and for too great a length of time on 
 a single object. In both cases the vision becomes 
 uncertain, the thing looked at grows blurred, in- 
 distinct, often exaggerated in proportions. Rest 
 the mind and the eye, and the power to see 
 clearly returns. 
 
 The two hours during which Southgate had 
 been absorbed in his book had refreshed his facul- 
 ties. He felt more cheerful and more charitably 
 10
 
 146 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 disposed toward Stella when he left the house 
 than when he had entered it. 
 
 Yet some doubt still haunted him. " I shall 
 not be suprised if I find my bird flown after all ; 
 nor very sorry ! " he thought, as he walked along 
 the silent streets in the starlight. The moon, 
 which was young, had gone down an hour before. 
 
 But he was surprised when this half-fear, half- 
 hope was verified. Stella was gone to the ger- 
 man. 
 
 He did not know this until he was in the sit- 
 ting-room, standing beside a low, clear fire, listen- 
 ing to hear her step descending the stair. There 
 was a light in the hall when he entered, and his 
 ring had been answered at once by Stella's maid, 
 who conducted him into the sitting-room before 
 she said : 
 
 " Miss Stella told me to be sure and ask you in, 
 Mr. Southgate, and give you this letter and these 
 flowers," directing his attention to the centre- 
 table, on which was a vase of hot-house flowers. 
 Amid the leaves and blossoms a letter was stand- 
 ing conspicuously up. 
 
 The young man looked at it for an instant with- 
 out touching it. 
 
 "Then Miss Gordon has gone to into the 
 country ? " he said. 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered the girl, with the air of a 
 culprit ; for she understood very well the state of 
 affairs, and was a firm partisan of Southgate's.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 147 
 
 The light was shaded so that she could not see 
 his face distinctly, but the tone of his voice 
 frightened her, it sounded so steru. She has- 
 tened, therefore, to add apologetically: 
 
 " Miss Stella didn't want to go at all, but you 
 are leaving these, Mr. Southgate ! " she inter- 
 rupted her explanation to exclaim, in a startled 
 manner, as that gentleman was moving toward 
 the door. She snatched up the vase and followed 
 precipitately. " Here is your letter, and the 
 flowers." 
 
 He turned and took the letter with undisguised 
 reluctance, unbuttoned his coat, and put it un- 
 opened into his pocket ; but shook his head as the 
 maid extended the flowers. 
 
 " Thank you, no," he said. " I will not de- 
 prive Miss Gordon of them." 
 
 But he walked back into the room, and she 
 again followed him, inquiring with evident un- 
 easiness : " Won't you leave a message for Miss 
 Stella, sir a note ? " 
 
 He saw that there were writing materials on 
 the table, placed there no doubt, for his use. 
 
 " I have no message," he answered ; and the 
 girl now perceived that he had come back to lay 
 a piece of money on the table, both her hands 
 being occupied with the vase which she was still 
 holding entreatingly toward him. 
 
 " You have been sitting up waiting for me, I 
 suppose, Louise," he said. " You must be tired."
 
 148 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 He pointed to the silver he had just put down, 
 with a kindly smile wished her good-night, and 
 the next moment the hall-door had closed on his 
 exit. 
 
 "Thank God, I am free ! " was the first definite 
 thought in his mind when he found himself out 
 under the stars again, striding rapidly away from 
 Stella Gordon's home. A wave of almost fierce 
 passion stirred his heart for a moment as a vision 
 of the girl he had regarded as his future wife rose 
 before him, radiant in beauty, dancing the ger- 
 man. 
 
 But his wrath passed as quickly as it came. 
 The last lingering shade of respect for Stella was 
 swept away in the bitter contempt which followed 
 his first feeling of anger ; and before he reached 
 the church whither he had mechanically directed 
 his steps on leaving Mr. Gordon's house indif- 
 ference had taken the place of contempt. He 
 left the very recollection of her outside the door. 
 Only as he knelt before the altar, which was a 
 blazing pyramid of lights and bowers, there was 
 something of individual consciousness in the fer- 
 vor with which his heart responded to the canti- 
 cles of joy and thanksgiving in which the church 
 celebrates the anniversary dawn of salvation to 
 the world. 
 
 "I am free! " was his first waking thought the 
 ,aext morning, and almost his first act after dress- 
 ing was to write a note, which he gave to his
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 149 
 
 servant with strict orders that it was to be taken 
 to Mrs. Gordon's during the course of the morn- 
 ing. Then, with the reflection, "I will conclude 
 the affair to-morrow," he dismissed all recollection 
 of his ill-fated engagement from his mind. 
 
 As he sat at breakfast the day after, he took 
 Stella's letter from the pocket in which it had 
 been reposing undisturbed ever since he had 
 thrust it there two nights before, and set himself 
 to read it, sighing impatiently as he drew the en- 
 closure from the envelope and saw how long it 
 was. There were two sheets of note-paper, al- 
 most covered. 
 
 As a matter of form he compelled hr^3elf to 
 wade, or rather stumble, through the pages ; but 
 if Stella had seen the stern brow and cold com- 
 posure with which he performed this task she 
 would have known that she might have spared her 
 
 excuses. 
 
 
 
 " Do not be very angry with me, dearest pray do 
 not!" she wrote in her huge, fashionable scrawl. 
 " Indeed I would not go to this hateful affair if I could 
 help myself. But mamma was furious, absolutely fu- 
 rious, with me after you left, and has commanded me to 
 go. She says that, after having proposed the party 
 myself and promised to go, it would be shamefully in- 
 excusable to stay away ; and she is sure when every- 
 thing is explained to you that you will be reasonable 
 enough to acknowledge that I could not draw back. 
 It will be no pleasure to me to go, I assure you, dar- 
 ling. I shall be thinking of you all the time, and I 
 fully mean all that I promised this afternoon. And i
 
 160 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 promise you solemnly that I will not dance once to- 
 night. O darling! if you knew how unhappy I am in 
 being obliged to pain you once more when I had so 
 fully intended never to do so again, you would not be 
 hard on me for what I can't help. Be generous and 
 once more forgive "Your own 
 
 "STELLA." 
 
 On the outside page of the last sheet were a few 
 lines, which, after some study, he conscientiously 
 deciphered : 
 
 " I leave my flowers that Bessie Curtis gave me to 
 wear this evening. Take them, vase and all, dearest, 
 and if you don't want them yourself put them on Our 
 Lady's altar. O Edward! do write one line (I leave 
 my portfolio on the sitting-room table) just to say that 
 you are not very angry." 
 
 Southgate smiled contemptuously at the last 
 words. 
 
 " I am not angry at all," he said aloud. " But 
 * the spell 'is broke, the charm is flown ' this 
 time for ever." 
 
 Folding the sheets, he replaced them in the en- 
 velope and tossed them carelessly into the fire.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 "I LOVE pleasure oh! I do love pleasure," 
 Stella had said more than once to her lover in 
 extenuation of her addiction to flirting and danc- 
 ing the german which last offence by the way, 
 ranked as a greater enormity in his opinion that 
 the first even. 
 
 " Yes, I think you love it better than anything 
 else in the world," he replied during their conver- 
 sation on Christmas eve. 
 
 " No, I do not love it as much as I love you ! " 
 she answered. 
 
 And she had spoken the truth. Notwithstand- 
 ing her attachment to pleasure and the german, it 
 was with very great difficulty that she was pre- 
 vailed upon to go to Mr. Gartrell's party. 
 
 At first she absolutely refused to go ; but when 
 her usually indulgent mother became seriously 
 angry and spoke with parental authority she 
 knew not how to resist. Naturally of a yielding 
 temper, that had been made wilful and obstinate 
 only by unlimited indulgence, she was intimidated 
 by a violence so new to her. 
 
 Even now, however, she did not yield the point 
 without a struggle. She argued, she entreated, 
 she even came to tears, imploring her mother not 
 
 (151)
 
 152 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 to compel her to do what she knew Southgate 
 would not easily forgive. But Mrs. Gordon, who, 
 ever since the hope of securing Gartrell as a sori- 
 in-law first dawned on her imagination as within 
 the limits of the possible, had been extremely 
 anxious to break the engagement with Southgate, 
 was inflexibly resolved not to permit such an op- 
 portunity as this to pass without using it. She 
 interrupted Stella's pleadings by telling her, in a 
 tone not to be disobeyed, to go and dress, as the 
 carriage was already at the gate. 
 
 The latter, thus constrained, made a hasty and 
 careless toilette, and then, with swollen eyes and 
 heaving breast, wrote the letter which received 
 such contemptuous treatment. 
 
 Seated beside her mother in the carriage, she 
 threw herself back in her corner, and without lis- 
 tening to the remarks on indifferent subjects 
 which Mrs. Gordon volunteered, or pretending to 
 reply to them, began to think of Southgate and 
 of what he would think when he called for her at 
 midnight and heard that she was gone. 
 
 " O mamma ! " she cried, suddenly bursting in- 
 to tears again and sobbing convulsively, " do let 
 me return home. We are not more than a mile 
 from town, and it is very early yet. Do drive 
 back and set me down ! " 
 
 " Is it worth while to talk so nonsensically ? " 
 asked her mother coldly. 
 
 " My head aches as if it would burst. I feel
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 153 
 
 really ill," sobbed Stella. " I am sure this is a 
 sufficient excuse for my not going on, particularly 
 as you can say that I started and had to turn 
 back." 
 
 To this argument her mother deigned no reply. 
 
 " Mamma, I never thought you could be so 
 cruel," cried the poor child, indignation and dis- 
 tress together making her almost hysterical. " You 
 do not seem to care how much I suffer." 
 
 " Stop crying, and your head will stop aching," 
 was the frigid reply. 
 
 " But I am thinking of Edward," Stella ex- 
 claimed passionately. " What will he say ? He 
 will believe that I am altogether unworthy of his 
 love and trust. He will give me up in despair." 
 
 " So much the better," said Mrs. Gordon com- 
 placently. "Mr. Gartrell is much the better 
 match of the two, and I am confident that the 
 moment he knows your engagement is off he will 
 propose for you." 
 
 For an instant Stella could not utter an articu- 
 late sound. Her blood tingled in her veins, and 
 there was an aching lump in her throat that she 
 strove in vain to swallow. 
 
 " Mamma," she exclaimed at last in a choking 
 voice, " do you mean that you have deliberately 
 counted on the breaking off of my engage- 
 ment?" 
 
 " I have foreseen for some time that it must 
 come to an end," was the reply in a cold, matter-
 
 154 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 of-course tone. " Considering how you have 
 been acting during the last month, I am only sur- 
 prised that Mr. Southgate has not asked you he- 
 fore now to release him." 
 
 " And you never uttered one word of reproof 
 or warning, and you said distinctly that you were 
 sure Edward was too reasonable to resent my at- 
 tending this party." 
 
 "He has been so very ' reasonable ' in overlook- 
 ing what, in his place, /should have considered 
 inexcusable conduct on your part that I may be 
 pardoned for presuming his powers of forbearance 
 to be unlimited," answered Mrs. Gordon sarcastic- 
 ally. "As for interfering myself, I have more 
 regard for your best interests than to do anything 
 which would prevent your ridding yourself of an 
 entanglement which you may replace to-morrow 
 by so much more advantageous a connection." 
 
 " O mother ! " cried Stella, in such a tone of re- 
 proach and despair that Mrs. Gordon for a mo- 
 ment half regretted having compelled her to take 
 a step which that lady believed would certainly 
 separate her from her lover. But the regret was 
 only momentary. When the girl once more im- 
 plored passionately to be allowed to return home 
 her mother answered authoritatively : 
 
 " Don't repeat that ridiculous proposal again, 
 Stella, but dry your eyes and act like a rational be- 
 ing instead of playing the spoiled child." 
 
 " You are right," said Stella bitterly. " I have
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 155 
 
 been playing the spoiled child all my life ; but I 
 have done with the role from henceforth, I prom- 
 ise you." 
 
 She sat up in her seat, and by the faint moon- 
 Kght her mother could see that she was drying her 
 eyes and arranging her dress, after doing which 
 6he leaned back once more and did not speak or 
 move again until they drew up before a flight of 
 steps over which a broad light was streaming from 
 the brilliantly illuminated hall at Lauderdale, and 
 Mr. Gartrell opened the carriage-door himself and 
 assisted her to alight. 
 
 "Thank you," she said simply in reply to his 
 impressive welcome. 
 
 Her tone and manner were so spiritless that he 
 paused involuntarily as he was about to turn and 
 extend his hand to Mrs. Gordon, who was still in 
 the carriage, and looked inquiringly at her. 
 
 " I hope you are well ? " he asked, noticing how 
 pale she was. 
 
 " No," she answered quietly. " I am suffering 
 with the worst headache I ever remember to have 
 had in my life. Indeed," to Mrs. Gordon's great 
 vexation she added, " but for mamma I should not 
 be here. I tried several times to persuade her to 
 turn back and leave me at home, but she insisted 
 on my coming." 
 
 " The crisis ! " thought Mr. Gartrell jubilantly. 
 
 He expressed his regret with evident sincerity 
 at hearing of her indisposition, as he conducted
 
 156 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 her mother and herself into the house, and was 
 most solicitous to secure her comfort in every way. 
 But he did not press any marked attentions upon 
 her. One glance at her face had informed him, 
 almost as clearly as words could have done, that 
 there was or would be a rupture with her be- 
 trothed as the result of her presence here to-night. 
 He was satisfied with this knowledge, and had too 
 much sense to risk injuring the prospect of suc- 
 cess which seemed opening before him by injudi- 
 cious haste in obtruding his suit. To do him jus- 
 tice, he had also too much good-nature to feel in- 
 clined to inflict the least degree of additional pain 
 on her when it was plainly to be seen that she was 
 already suffering very much. There was in her 
 eyes an expression of anxiety and preoccupation 
 of mind strangely out of place in a ball-room so 
 strangely out of place that early in the evening he 
 suggested to her mother that he feared Miss Gor- 
 don ought to retire, she looked so really ill ; and 
 Mrs. Gordon, whose ambition by no means stifled 
 natural feeling as yet, went to Stella and urged 
 her to go to bed. 
 
 She declined to do so. 
 
 " I could not sleep, and it would be more tire- 
 some lying awake all alone than staying here," 
 she answered coldly. 
 
 "But I am afraid you are suffering very much, 
 you are so pale," said her mother.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 157 
 
 " I feel ill," she replied in the same tone as be- 
 fore, " but I suppose I shall be well to-morrow." 
 
 The evening was very long and wearying to 
 her. Instead of joining in the wild whirl of the 
 german, as Southgate's imagination pictured her, 
 she sat quiet and languid by the fire, with that 
 forced expression of amiability on her face which 
 is so often the most transparent mask put on to 
 conceal ennui. 
 
 " You poor child, I see that you are bored to 
 death ! " exclaimed her friend Bessie Curtis, com- 
 ing to her side shortly before twelve o'clock and 
 regarding with half-comic pity her conscientious 
 efforts to talk to and seem amused by a heavy 
 gentleman who " never waltzed " and was exceed- 
 ingly anxious to please. " Come and go up-stairs 
 with me ! You have been acting martyr long 
 enough." 
 
 Stella smiled more brightly than she had before 
 during the whole evening, and rose readily. 
 
 " I am tired," she said, " and my head aches 
 distractingly. So tired ! " she continued a mo- 
 ment later when her friend and herself were 
 seated beside a glowing fire in the pleasant cham- 
 ber that had been assigned to them. " Every 
 clash of that band went through and through my 
 brain, it seemed to me. I don't think I shall ever 
 want to hear a Strauss waltz again." 
 
 " Oh ! yes, you will," said Miss Curtis, laughing
 
 158 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 "tomorrow night, perhaps. It is to be hoped 
 that your head will be well by that time." 
 
 " My head is not the worst of it, " said Stella ; 
 and, time and place being propitious for con- 
 fidence, she poured out a recital of her wrongs, 
 the root of her headache her lover's insistance 
 that she should not come to this party, and her 
 mother's insistance that she should. "I know 
 Edward is going to be very, very angry. Yet it 
 is not my fault that I came," she concluded. 
 
 " You can tell him so," said her friend consol- 
 ingly. "And now do go to bed. You look 
 wretched for you." 
 
 " I feel horrible," L Stella answered, and followed 
 the advice offered. 
 
 But it was not so easy to comply with the 
 exhortation to go to sleep with which Miss Curtis 
 left her shortly afterwards. Southgate's face, as it 
 had looked that afternoon, stern and resolved, 
 with a gleam of scorn in the clear gray eyes, was 
 persistently before her. 
 
 " He knows by this time that I am here," she 
 said half-aloud, pressing her hands to her aching 
 temples. " He has a right to be angry and to 
 scorn me. I wonder if he is thinking of me now ! 
 No," as a clock down -stairs struck twelve, "he is 
 not, I am sure. He is at Midnight Mass." 
 
 On that thought she paused, and a different 
 picture of Southgate's countenance replaced the 
 one that had been haunting her all the evening.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 159 
 
 This was a gentle and reverent face that she saw 
 gazing at the altar before which she knew he was 
 now kneeling. 
 
 "I wish, how I wish, that I was there with 
 him ! " she exclaimed under her breath. " Ah I 
 if he will but forgive me this one time more I will 
 try and learn to be good and devout, as he is." 
 
 She went to sleep after a while, and woke the 
 next morning feverishly impatient to get back to 
 town in order to see her lover and justify her 
 conduct to him. But there was breakfast and a 
 long delay to be endured before the moment of 
 relief which saw her seated in the carriage and 
 driving away from Lauderdale. It was almost 
 noon when they reached home.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOUTHGATE'S servant was coming out of the 
 gate as they drove up to it. 
 
 " You brought a note for me, Willis ? " Stella 
 said eagerly, leaning out of the carriage-window 
 to speak to the man. 
 
 " Yes'm," was the reply. 
 
 With a light heart she hurried into the house, 
 to find the note addressed not to herself but to 
 Mrs. Gordon, and to see that the vase of flowers 
 she had left for Southgate was still on the table 
 where she had placed it. 
 
 She met her mother and offered her the note as 
 the latter was entering the hall. 
 
 " You can read it," said the lady, recognizing 
 the writing. 
 
 Stella opened it and glanced at a few formal 
 words in which the writer excused himself from 
 dining with Mrs. Gordon that day, "as he had 
 expected to have the honor of doing." 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Mrs. Gordon a little 
 sharply, and yet sorry for the distress visible in 
 her daughter's face. 
 
 " It is an apology. Mr. Southgate is not com- 
 ing to dinner," answered Stella coldly. 
 
 Laying the note down on the hall -table, she 
 (160)
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 161 
 
 went to her own room, summoned her maid, and 
 heard a detailed account of Southgate's visit of 
 the night before. 
 
 He had received her letter unwillingly, and had 
 put it into his pocket unopened ; he had refused to 
 take the flowers ; he " had no message" for her ! 
 
 That was the cheering information obtained by 
 a very strict cross-examination of Louise. The 
 prospect before her was not encouraging. She 
 could not write to him again. What should she 
 do ? she asked herself. 
 
 Just at the moment she could do nothing ; but 
 in the afternoon she went to Vespers, hoping she 
 might there meet her recusant lover. 
 
 She saw him at once on entering the church, 
 his pew being near her own ; and all through 
 Vespers, and even as she knelt at Benediction, 
 she was considering how she could attract his 
 attention, and waiting with palpitating heart for 
 the moment of leaving the church. 
 
 That moment came and went without his glanc- 
 ing once in her direction. 
 
 With heavy heart she returned home, and the 
 rest of the day which ended with a large 
 Christmas-party dragged through more wearily 
 than ever day had for her before. 
 
 She even could not sleep when at last, long 
 after midnight, she laid her tired head on the 
 pillow. But when finally she did lose conscious- 
 ness her slumber was deep and long. 
 11
 
 162 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 "Mr. Southgate is down-stairs, Miss Stella," 
 was the announcement with which Louise awoke 
 her the next morning. 
 
 " What did you say ? " she exclaimed, starting 
 up and looking a little bewildered. 
 
 The maid repeated what she had said, and 
 added : 
 
 " I saw him coming up the walk a minute ago 
 and thought I had better wake you." 
 
 " Mr. Southgate here this time in the morning ! " 
 cried the young lady in amazement as she sprang 
 out of bed. 
 
 " Oh ! it's not so very early," said the maid. 
 " Breakfast is over, but " 
 
 " Breakfast over, and you did not wake me ! " 
 
 "You know you always tell me not to disturb 
 you early when you have been up the night be- 
 fore," was the answer. 
 
 A truth which Stella could not deny. There- 
 fore she made no rejoinder, but with Louise's as- 
 sistance dressed as rapidly as she could. 
 
 " Did you tell Mr. Southgate that I would be 
 down directly ? " she asked. 
 
 "No'm; I didn't speak to him. I only caught 
 a glimpse of him, and came straight to tell you." 
 
 A few minutes afterwards Stella ran lightly 
 down-stairs and with sparkling face opened the 
 sitting-room door. To her surprise the room was 
 empty. She went to the drawing-room, but that 
 too was vacant ; and, on inquiring of the servant
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 163 
 
 who liad seen Mr. Southgate, was told that he had 
 asked for Mr. Gordon, not herself, and, learning 
 that Mr. Gordon was really gone to his office, had 
 declined to come in. 
 
 Sick to the soul with disappointment and an 
 intuition of coming evil, she returned to her own 
 room and waited for what was to come. 
 
 She did not have to wait long, though the time 
 seemed long to her. In less than half an hour 
 she received a message from her father. He wished 
 to see her. 
 
 He was standing on the hearth with his back 
 to the fire when she entered the sitting-room in 
 answer to his summons, and greeted her by a \eiy 
 slight " Good-morning." For the first time that 
 she remembered he had no smile for her ; his face 
 was grave, almost stern. 
 
 When she was seated and looked up question- 
 ingly he said abruptly : 
 
 " Southgate has just been with me to request 
 to be released from the engagement of marriage 
 which existed between him and yourself." 
 
 She was not surprised. It was what she ex- 
 pected. The color ebbed from her face, and her 
 hands clasped each other convulsively ; but she 
 had prepared herself, and managed to present an 
 appearance of calmness, though she could not com- 
 mand the power of speech. 
 
 After a momentary pause her father continued : 
 
 " He says that almost from the first you have
 
 164 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 acted in a manner which has gradually led him to 
 the belief that you were mistaken in imagining 
 you were attached to him. He is inclined to think 
 that you discovered this and wished to get out of 
 the affair, yet did not like to move first, and con- 
 sequently have so conducted yourself as to force 
 him to move. Believing that, under these cir- 
 cumgtances, it would not be for the happiness of 
 either of you to marry, he asks that the engage- 
 ment be dissolved by mutual consent, though he 
 leaves you at liberty to say that you rejected 
 him. 
 
 " I have repeated substantially his own words ; 
 now I want to know the meaning of it all. He 
 is not a man to be either untruthful or unreason- 
 able ; therefore I presume that his taking this step 
 is justifiable ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered Stella in a quivering voice. 
 
 " I am to understand, then," said Mr. Gordon, 
 " that you did want to rid yourself of the en- 
 gagement, and took this unworthy way to do 
 it?" 
 
 " No," she replied emphatically, lifting her eyes 
 and meeting his frowning gaze unflinchingly. " I 
 have acted very badly, I confess, though I did 
 not mean to do so it was all my miserable folly 
 but I never for a moment wished to break the 
 engagement." 
 
 " Then why did you leave that impression on
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 165 
 
 Southgate's mind ? " he demanded, with increasing 
 irritation. 
 
 Partly the tone in which the question was asked 
 so different from her father's usual caressing 
 manner and partly the sense which grew mo- 
 mently more clear to her apprehension and more 
 bitter to her heart that Southgate was lost to her 
 for ever, overcame the composure she was strug- 
 gling to maintain. To Mr. Gordon's equal an- 
 noyance and consternation she burst into tears, 
 and, covering her face with her handkerchief, 
 sobbed unrestrainedly. 
 
 While he was essaying some blundering at- 
 tempts at consolation, half reproving, half sooth- 
 ing her distress, the door opened and his wife en- 
 tered the room. He had been informed, when he 
 came home and wished to see her before he spoke 
 to Stella, that she was dressing to go out, and she 
 appeared now in carriage costume. Pausing just 
 within the threshold, she said : 
 
 " Did you want to see me, Roland ? " Then, 
 observing the disturbance of his countenance and 
 the tears of her daughter, she advanced a step and 
 asked : " What is the matter ? " 
 
 " The matter is that your kind efforts to break 
 my engagement and ruin the happiness of my life 
 have succeeded, mamma!" cried Stella, springing 
 to her feet and confronting her mother with flash- 
 ing eyes from which tears were pouring in streams. 
 
 "I told you," she went on passionately, "that
 
 166 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Edward would not forgive another breach of 
 faith on my part ! I implored you not to compel 
 me to go to that detestable 
 
 "Stella!" interrupted her father sternly, "rec- 
 ollect yourself. How dare you speak in such a 
 tone as that to your mother?" 
 
 " You don't know, papa, how cruelly she has 
 treated me ! It is her fault, not mine, that my en- 
 gagement is broken off ! I " 
 
 She stopped, her voice choked in tears, and 
 Mr. Gordon looked inquiringly to his wife for an 
 explanation of the accusation just made. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon was buttoning her gloves an oc- 
 cupation which she chose at the moment as well 
 to prevent the exultation she felt at hearing of 
 the success of her schemes from betraying itself 
 in her eyes as to conceal some slight confusion 
 which, notwithstanding her complacency, she 
 could not entirely control. Not succeeding in 
 meeting her eye, her husband was obliged to put 
 his question into words. 
 
 " What is this trouble between Stella and South- 
 gate about? " he asked, "and what does she mean 
 by saying that it is your fault ? " 
 
 " Stella, though engaged to one man, has been 
 flirting with another for a month past, to which 
 conduct Mr. Southgate naturally objects," an- 
 swered Mrs. Gordon drily. " As to her assertion 
 that I had anything to do with the breaking of the 
 engagement, that is nonsense. I insisted on her
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 167 
 
 going to a party on Christmas eve which was 
 given to please her and at her special request. 
 After asking Mr. Gartrell to give the party, and 
 promising again and again that she would go, she 
 wished to draw back at the last moment. This 
 would have been such unpardonable rudeness that 
 I would not permit it." 
 
 " I am astonished that you suffered her to act 
 so improperly in the first place," said Mr. Gordon 
 in a tone of displeasure. " Why did you permit 
 her to flirt, as you call it, and to be on such fa- 
 miliar terms with a man like Gartrell as to be 
 asking him to give parties? If she wanted a party 
 could not you have given it?" 
 
 "Why did I 'permit' her to flirt with Mr. 
 Gartrell and propose his giving a ball at Lauder- 
 dale ? " repeated Mrs. Gordon quietly. " Really, 
 if you imagine that Stella ever waits for permis- 
 sion to do anything she chooses to do you know 
 very little about her character." 
 
 Mr. Gordon turned round sharply where he 
 stood, and, taking up the tongs, punched the fire 
 vigorously for a moment or two. Then he took 
 several turns up and down the room, glancing at 
 his daughter to see whether she had any further 
 plea to enter in her defence. But she could not 
 deny the truth of a word her mother had uttered, 
 and did not attempt to do so. " Well," he said at 
 last very drily, " so far as I can see, there is nothing 
 more to be done in the matter."
 
 168 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 "Nothing, except to return Mr. Southgate's 
 ring," said Mrs. Gordon in a matter-of-course 
 tone. " You had better do so at once, Stella " 
 
 With which parting advice she went on her way 
 rejoicing.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MB. GORDON was a man of easy temper and, 
 morally speaking, indolent nature. He would not 
 have been guilty of a dishonorable act for any 
 earthly consideration; nothing would have in- 
 duced him to commit a wilful fault even. But 
 as to sins of omission his conscience was as easy 
 as his temper. He was fond of his wife and 
 daughter, and the sole principle of his life with 
 regard to them was unlimited indulgence. 
 
 Naturally they accepted this rule kindly ; and 
 thus far it had answered very well, giving him 
 what he desired a quiet and harmonious life. 
 Stella was badly spoiled, it is true ; but her whims 
 and caprices did not come much within his cog- 
 nizance, and, consequently, it had never occurred 
 to him that he was called upon to notice or cor- 
 rect them. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon was phlegmatically amiable. She 
 had all she wanted in the world, and nothing to 
 speak of that she did not want. Though pro- 
 foundly selfish, she was not disposed to be un- 
 reasonable or to make herself disagreeable to 
 anybody about trifles. And everything which did 
 not conflict with her own comfort or wishes was 
 a trifle in her eyes. When Stella accepted South- 
 
 (169)
 
 170 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 gate she accepted him also willingly enough. She 
 thought at the time that he would fill the position 
 as well or better than any other young gentle- 
 man of her acquaintance, and rather liked him 
 personally. 
 
 But at Gartrell's appearance upon the scene, 
 and as soon as his manner made it evident that 
 with the slightest encouragement he would be a 
 suitor for Stella's hand, dormant ambition awoke 
 in her soul. Here was the man for Stella to have 
 married. Still, while lamenting secretly the ill- 
 chance which, in the person of Southgate, had 
 come between her daughter and this distinguished 
 and desirable parti, it was some time before the 
 idea entered her mind that, though engaged, 
 Stella was not yet married, and that to give up 
 one engagement and form another was not a thing 
 impossible. 
 
 Perhaps such an idea never would have entered 
 her mind but for Stella's own conduct. Having 
 obtained entrance, however, it remained. 
 
 A person of phlegmatic temperament is, accord- 
 ing to physiological science, capable of energetic 
 effort if once roused to action. Mrs. Gordon ex- 
 emplified the truth of this opinion. She was in- 
 defatigable in her exertions to bring about the end 
 she desired. Almost daily she managed that, one 
 way or another, Stella should be irritated against 
 her lover and do something to irritate him in turn- 
 To her own suprise, she developed a decided
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 171 
 
 genius for intrigue, really enjoyed the excitement 
 of the game she was playing, and played in a per- 
 fectly dispassionate spirit. Until on Christmas 
 eve when he so nearly defeated her by his per- 
 tinacity and resolution, she had not entertained 
 the slightest ill-feeling toward Southgate, nor was 
 she troubled with the least twinge of remorse for 
 the injury she was doing him. She was acting 
 for the advantage of her daughter, she would have 
 said to her conscience, had she owned such an ap- 
 pendage and it had ventured a remonstrance. 
 
 Great was her exultation now, as, leaving Stella 
 dissolved in tears, she drove off to do some shop- 
 ping. She regarded the marriage with Gartrell 
 as virtually accomplished. 
 
 Her husband looked at the matter in a very dif- 
 ferent light. Knowing Southgate well, and ap- 
 preciating his character at its true worth, he 
 had been more than pleased with the proposed 
 connection, and his disappointment and regret at 
 this termination* of the affair was extreme. Ad- 
 ded to which he was both shocked and angered 
 at an exposure of conduct on the part of his 
 daughter which he regarded as nothing less than 
 false and unprincipled. 
 
 He walked up and down the floor, after his wife 
 was gone, looking and feeling very much in- 
 censed ; and as soon as Stella's sobs softened a 
 little from their first violence he requested and 
 obtained her version of the affair.
 
 172 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " Humph ! You have certainly acted in a very 
 honorable manner," he said, with stinging irony, 
 when she concluded. 
 
 " O papa ! " she cried deprecatingly. 
 
 " I thought you might possibly be able to make 
 some explanation which I could offer to South- 
 gate," he went on coldly ; "but I see he was 
 right in saying that your conduct is inexcusable. 
 I am disappointed in you, Stella bitterly 
 disappointed. Of course, I knew that you were 
 spoiled and childish, but I gave you credit for 
 having some sense and some principle. In this 
 affair you have show,n no sign of either. However," 
 checking himself, " reproaches will do no good ; 
 nor, I am afraid, will advice. But I have one 
 word of warning to give you. Unless you want to 
 make a miserable life for yourself do not think 
 of marrying Gartrell. He is not a man to be 
 trusted." 
 
 " I would not marry him to save his life, or my 
 own either ! " she exclaimed vehemently. 
 
 " Don't talk senselessly," said her father, with 
 frowning impatience, as he turned to leave the 
 room. 
 
 Stella listened to his receding steps and felt 
 that hope had departed with them. His words, 
 " There is nothing more to be done in the matter," 
 and her mother's addendum, " except to return 
 Mr. Southgate's ring," seemed repeated almost
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 173 
 
 audibly beside her. It had come to this, then 
 her engagement was really at an end. 
 
 She sat for .a long time just where her father 
 left her, without moving, almost without breath- 
 ing, with something of a stunned sensation. 
 
 The entrance of a servant with two cards at last 
 roused her. 
 
 " Why didn't you say * not at home,' Robert ? " 
 she exclaimed impatiently, taking the cards and 
 glancing at them, turning her back to the man in- 
 voluntarily as she did so to prevent his seeing her 
 face, on which the traces of tears must be very 
 visible, she feared. " You know mamma is out." 
 
 " I said so, Miss Stella, ancl that you were not 
 up, I thought. Mrs. Harrison was going away then, 
 but Miss Flora insisted on my finding out whether 
 you could not see her. So I asked them in." 
 
 " Say, with my compliments, that I beg to be 
 excused." 
 
 But before the servant could leave the room 
 she stopped him. The dread idea of what the 
 opinion of the world would be as to the breaking 
 of her engagement, for the first time came like a 
 shock upon her. Of course the fact would soon 
 be known. Of course the dullest people could 
 put two and two together Southgate's absence 
 from Mr. Gartrell's ball and from her mother's 
 party the evening before, and her own low 
 spirits on both occasions. She was sure it would 
 be perfectly well understood that he had with-
 
 174 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 drawn from the contract, not been rejected. Her 
 vanity writhed at the bare imagination of all that 
 would be said on the subject. She could hear 
 Mrs. Harrison and her daughter who, though 
 not ill-natured, were thoroughpaced gossips con- 
 tributing their quota to the general fund of con- 
 jecture and report. " No wonder she was not to 
 be seen this morning, poor thing ! " Mrs. Harri- 
 son, she knew, would exclaim in sympathetic 
 tone ; and Flora would add, with a slight shrug of 
 the shoulders, " I always knew how that affair 
 would end. Stella is too incorrigible a flirt to 
 marry the first man she was engaged to ! " 
 
 Swift as a flash all these thoughts were in her 
 mind; her pride was in arms .in an instant. A 
 sense of indignant anger against Southgate which 
 she had never felt before took possession of her. 
 " She would show him that she was not heart- 
 broken, nor even hurt, by his desertion ! " she ex- 
 claimed mentally. 
 
 " Stay, Robert ! " she cried, almost in the same 
 breath with the apology she had just delivered, 
 and before Robert had taken a step toward the 
 door. 
 
 Turning rapidly to a mirror, she scrutinized her 
 face. It was not so hopelessly unpresentable as 
 she had expected to see it ; and, bidding the man 
 say she would be down presently, she hurried to 
 her chamber, bathed her eyes, manipulated her 
 flushed cheeks gently with a powder-puff, and
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 175 
 
 then made a very deliberate toilette. By the time 
 this was completed scarcely a trace of her late 
 distress was discernible even by herself, and to 
 her friends in the drawing-room she looked quite 
 as usual. They had no suspicion that they had 
 been kept waiting so long from any other reason 
 than the one she apologetically alleged her hav- 
 ing been late in rising, and always taking a long 
 time to dress. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon was amazed, on her return, to hear 
 voices and laughter as she entered the hall, and to 
 find Stella, in her best looks and spirits, entertain- 
 ing visitors. Here was a transformation as un- 
 looked for as it was welcome. She had expected 
 to have no slight trouble, and that it would re- 
 quire skilful management, to induce her daughter 
 to " act reasonably " in the matter of her broken 
 engagement. Her relief and pleasure were great 
 at perceiving that the girl herself had as she con- 
 sidered, taken so sensible an attitude. 
 
 And Stella was as much pleased with herself as 
 her mother was pleased with her, when she found 
 how well she was acting her hastily-adopted role. 
 She made an engagement for the evening with Mrs. 
 Harrison, and, while the two elderly ladies were 
 exchanging parting civilities when Mrs. Harrison 
 and her daughter rose to go, remarked to her 
 friend Flora, apropos of observing the latter's gaze 
 fixed on her hand : 
 
 " I see you miss my ring. I was tired of it, it
 
 176 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 had so many sharp edges and was always cutting 
 or scratching me. So I have taken it off for 
 good." 
 
 " Indeed ! " exclaimed Miss Harrison, surprised. 
 " You mean you have discarded Mr. Southgate ? " 
 
 Stella winced at this point-blank question. She 
 would have been willing to convey indirectly the 
 impression just expressed, Southgate having re- 
 quested that she would give to the world her own 
 version of the affair ; but her capability of decep- 
 tion was not robust enough to commit a positive 
 breach of veracity. Therefore she laughed and 
 answered : 
 
 " Oh ! no. The affair had become mutually 
 unbearable, and we determined to be happy apart 
 instead of miserable together. Don't you think 
 we were right ? "
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHANCE has often more to do with the shaping 
 of human action than the actor himself is aware. 
 In the present case the mere circumstance of an 
 inopportune visit caused Stella to take a line of 
 conduct which would not probably have been her 
 choice had time been afforded her for considera- 
 tion. She could not permit the Harrisons to think 
 she was in agonies of regret at the loss of her 
 lover that, she was aware, would be the infer- 
 ence drawn from her denying herself to them as 
 soon as the fact of her break with Southgate be- 
 came known and so she constrained herself to 
 put aside the pain she felt and affect indifference. 
 Then, on the impulse of the moment, she gave 
 Miss Harrison (whom she knew to be a good pub- 
 lishing medium) an explanation of the affair the 
 truth of which she afterwards felt bound to sub- 
 stantiate by her conduct. 
 
 A sense of womanly pride, aided by her epicu- 
 rean nature, which turned instinctively from 
 everything painful and seized instinctively every 
 possibility of amusement and enjoyment the pas- 
 sing moment afforded, enabled her to succeed 
 fairly well in her self-appointed task. If she felt 
 her lover's defection to be anything but a relief 
 12 (177)
 
 178 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 she betrayed no sign to that effect, unless a more 
 feverish pursuit of pleasure than she had indulged 
 before even might be construed so. She flirted 
 and danced the german ad libitum now, and be- 
 came so very " fast " that her mother interfered 
 or, more properly speaking, attempted to inter- 
 fere, but without result. 
 
 "You destroyed the happiness of my life, 
 mamma, and you must allow me to take all the 
 pleasure I can get in place of it," she said coldly 
 in reply to Mrs. Gordon's remonstrances and re- 
 proofs, and went her way with utter indifference 
 to everything but the gratification of her own 
 will. 
 
 Smarting under an accusation that was but half 
 true, Mrs. Gordon soon began to wish that she 
 had not undertaken to order Stella's life, but had 
 acquiesced in what fate and Stella herself had 
 elected as fitting. 
 
 It was not only that the latter's resentment 
 seemed inappeasable, manifesting itself in a frigid 
 distance of manner and studied avoidance of 
 her presence which wounded even more than pro- 
 voked her. She had incurred her husband's dis- 
 pleasure also. He blamed her severely, she could 
 see. Though he said only a few words on the 
 subject once, and did not recur to it after- 
 wards, he was cold, almost stern, in his manner to 
 her as well as to their daughter. She was obliged 
 to admit to herself that the result of her labors
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 179 
 
 at match-breaking and match making was alto- 
 gether infelicitous. She had brought a cloud upon 
 her marital life and had estranged her daughter's 
 affection. 
 
 That was not all ; for when, early in the new- 
 year, Gartrell fulfilled her prediction by propos- 
 ing to Stella, he received a prompt and decided 
 refusal a refusal so prompt and decided that 
 most men would have accepted it as final. 
 
 Not so Gartrell. He never, like the rest of 
 Stella's friends and acquaintance, was deceived by 
 her affected indifference and rattling gayety into 
 the belief that she had thrown over Southgate for 
 his Gartrell's sake and was ready to marry him 
 at a word. Having read with tolerable accuracy 
 the whole course of her conduct, he understood 
 much better than Southgate did that she was sin- 
 cerely attached to the latter, and that the faults 
 which to her lover seemed grave and inherent de- 
 fects of character were simply the volatility of 
 extreme youth and an exuberance of animal 
 spirits which she had not yet learned to control. 
 He was not surprised, scarcely disappointed, and 
 certainly not discouraged, by the issue of his first 
 proposal, considering it a first step only, a break- 
 ing ground, so to speak, and not expecting a dif- 
 ferent answer. 
 
 But he was just the man to be animated instead 
 of dismayed by obstacles. That which was diffi- 
 cult of attainment he most desired ; and, apart
 
 180 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 from this very common sentiment of mankind he 
 was really fascinated by Stella's beauty and vivac- 
 ity. Above all, his vanity was enlisted in the 
 pursuit. She was the first woman he had ever 
 asked to be his wife, and she had declined that 
 much-coveted honor. Such a failure must be re- 
 trieved, he felt. Time would reconcile her to the 
 loss of her lover, he doubted not. He would 
 wait awhile, perhaps, before renewing his ad- 
 dresses ; but, at whatever cost of effort and man- 
 agement, he must win her, he was resolved. 
 
 No doubt he was more encouraged than he 
 would otherwise have been to persevere in his ob- 
 ject by the fact that Southgate left M a few 
 
 days after the rupture of his engagement, for, he 
 informed his friends, a stay of considerable time 
 in Europe. He had a brother, a student of the 
 Propaganda, whom he had been intending to visit 
 during the autumn just past. His engagement 
 having prevented the fulfilment of that intention, 
 Stella had consented to be married in April, and 
 they were to sail at once for the Old World. He 
 now went alone ; and Gartrell considered him 
 well out of the way, and, like Mrs. Gordon, re- 
 garded his own success to be simply a matter of 
 time. 
 
 He would not have been so sanguine had he 
 known what Stella's feelings toward him were. 
 He had injured her by tempting her to flirt with 
 him and thereby provoke her lover to break with
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 181 
 
 her ; she had injured him by being induced to 
 flirt with him and thus lead him to suppose she 
 would marry him. So the proposition stood in 
 her mind. Mutually sinning and sinned against, 
 they were quits, she thought ; and, on her part, 
 she wished she might henceforth and forever be 
 quit of him and his admiration. She had never 
 imagined or desired that this admiration would 
 take the practical form of a declaration of love 
 and proposal of marriage. A little incense to her 
 vanity was all she had wanted from him. 
 
 His proposal gratified her in one way only. In 
 the bitterness of her anger against her mother she 
 was pleased to be able (metaphorically speaking) 
 to trample on that lady's ambitious hopes, and to 
 let her see that her intriguing had done nothing 
 but mischief. Too eager and anxious not to 
 be observant, Mrs. Gordon divined at once by 
 Gartrell's manner, when she returned to the draw- 
 ing-room one morning after having absented her- 
 self for a time in order to give him the opportu- 
 nity, which she hoped and believed he desired, of 
 speaking to her daughter, that he had put his fate 
 to the touch and lost. 
 
 " Did not Mr. Gartrell offer himself this morn- 
 ing, Stella ? " she inquired the first moment she 
 obtained for speaking to Stella privately, which, 
 thanks to an influx of visitors at the time and the 
 manoeuvres of the latter afterwards, was not 
 until she had endured some hours of suspense.
 
 182 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " He did me that honor," answered Stella, with 
 just the faintest inflection of irony in her voice. 
 
 " And you ? " said her mother, outwardly 
 calm, but inwardly palpitating with alarm at the 
 bare suspicion which began to dawn upon her. 
 
 " I declined the honor." 
 
 " You mean to tell me that you refused him ? " 
 cried Mrs. Gordon in a tone of violent anger. 
 
 " Certainly," was the cool reply. 
 
 It seemed at the moment as if mother and 
 daughter had changed characters. Mrs. Gordon, 
 who had all her life been so imperturbably tran- 
 quil in manner, was now excited beyond the 
 power of self-control. Her ample chest heaved 
 with passion ; her light blue eyes, which were too 
 cold to flash, had a dull glow in them ; she was 
 absolutely inarticulate as she gazed into her 
 daughter's face, on which was a look almost 
 cruel, such utter indifference did it express. 
 She had come into Stella's room in the afternoon 
 while the latter was dressing for a short journey 
 she was about to take, had sent Louise away, and 
 abruptly asked the question which was thus 
 answered so much to her disappointment ; and it 
 was not only disappointment and rage that she 
 now felt, but a sort of startled wonder at the 
 change in Stella. The singular immobility of the 
 countenance habitually all flashing vivacity, the 
 perfect quiet of the attitude in which the girl 
 stood beside the toilet-table facing her mother,
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 183 
 
 with her hands resting on the marble, as motion- 
 less as if they had been part of it, struck Mrs. 
 Gordon as so unnatural that she was half-bewil- 
 dered. A thrill' of pain, almost remorse, shot 
 through her heart ; but it was followed the next 
 instant by a rush of angry indignation. 
 
 "You must have lost your senses!" she ex- 
 claimed, regaining the power of speech. " Silly and 
 spoiled as you always were, I never thought you 
 could be capable of the idiocy of refusing such a 
 man as this ! " 
 
 " Tastes differ," said Stella* carelessly. " Some 
 people admire Mr. Gartrell you, mamma, for 
 instance. I do not. I never should have thought 
 of marrying him, even if he had not been the 
 cause of my not being permitted to marry the man 
 I loved." 
 
 "I am ashamed to hear you speak in this way ! " 
 cried Mrs. Gordon with vehement reproach. " I 
 am ashamed that my daughter has so little pride, 
 is so destitute of the faintest sentiment of self- 
 respect, as to boast of her love for a man who 
 left her who rejected her instead of despising 
 and forgetting him ! " 
 
 " It is only the despicable whom it is possible 
 to depise," answered Stella quietly. "Mr. South- 
 gate treated me as I deserved I confess that. 
 And as to forgetting him, I am not breaking my 
 heart about him. No one would accuse me of 
 that, I am sure, " she added, with a cynical
 
 184 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 smile that looked very much out of place on her 
 lips. 
 
 " Everybody will believe it, if you show so little 
 sense as to refuse Mr. Gartrell. " 
 
 Stella shrugged her shoulders. " It is a matter 
 of indifference to me what everybody believes," 
 she said. 
 
 "And pray whom do you expect to marry, if 
 you throw away such an offer as this ?" demanded 
 her mother, in despair. 
 
 " Nobody, probably. But I manage to amuse 
 myself well enough, and that is all I care about 
 for the present. The future can take care of 
 itself. And if I am at last left an old maid on 
 your hands, mamma, why, you will have only 
 yourself to thank for it, you know." 
 
 There was a ring of bitterness in the last words 
 which silenced the burst of anger with which Mrs. 
 Gordon's heart was swelling. She turned and left 
 the room without making any reply to the re- 
 proach ; and Stella rang for her maid and resumed 
 the interrupted labors of her toilette. 
 
 An hour afterwards, having taken a cold leave 
 of her mother, she was on her way to visit a 
 
 friend in W , a neighboring town, half a day's 
 
 journey away by rail.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN the fresh fields and pastures new to which 
 she had betaken herself Stella found everything 
 enjoyable. She was charmed to be with her friend 
 Gertrude Ingoldsby ; she was pleased with the 
 parents of her friend kind, genial people, whose 
 acquaintance she had never made before ; and, 
 best of all to her, in the society of W there was 
 plenty of food for powder plenty of young gen- 
 tlemen who, without permanent injury to their 
 hearts, offered her that incense of admiration 
 which she craved as the inebriate does brandy. 
 
 Chief among the number of these admirers was 
 Tom Ingoldsby, a brother of her friend, who met 
 her at the station on her arrival, and straightway 
 flung himself down and licked the dust of her 
 chariot-wheels. She appreciated such unhesitating 
 and unreserved fealty, and accepted it graciously. 
 As she often assured her friend, her time passed 
 delightfully. 
 
 For a week. But circumstance, alas ! is muta- 
 able. At the end of that short period there sud- 
 denly appeared a Mardochai sitting in the gate of 
 triumphs. 
 
 There was an elder son of the house of Ingolds- 
 by, who had been absent from home when she ar- 
 
 (185)
 
 186 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 rived. He returned one night, made his appear- 
 ance at breakfast the next morning, and her 
 peace of mind, as well as his brother Tom's, was 
 gone. 
 
 He did not bow down and offer involuntary 
 homage of eye and smile to her beauty, as most 
 men did when they met her first. Not being 
 what is called a ladies' man, it was a matter of no 
 concern to him that a young lady was domiciled 
 for the time in the house. He was courteous but 
 indifferent in manner when introduced to her. 
 "A pretty girl," he thought carelessly; but the 
 piquant face which many men considered so be- 
 witching had no special attraction to him. Had he 
 been in the way of admiring women his ideal 
 would have been different. 
 
 Stella was at first amazed at his insensibility, 
 then disgusted, then piqued, finally put upon her 
 mettle. If Mr. Ferroll Ingoldsby had been aware 
 of the counsel she took with her pillow on the 
 first opportunity she had for consulting that sole 
 available friend (she could not, of course, discuss 
 with his sister the subject of his intractability to 
 the power of her charms) he might have trembled 
 at his danger, or he might have smiled. 
 
 She had never intentionally been a coquette, 
 only a flirt. To excite admiration, not to inspire 
 love, had been her amusement hitherto. But she 
 felt bloodthirsty now. 
 
 " I should like to make that man love me," she
 
 BELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 18? 
 
 said to her confidant, the pillow, as she laid her 
 head down upon it. "And why not? Shall I 
 try? A whole day in the same house, and he has 
 bowed to me three times? Not a word beyond 
 the most commonplace of social civilities ; not a 
 look which he might not as well have bestowed 
 on the poker. Shall I submit to such treatment ? I 
 think not. Let me see : I have been here a week, 
 and I came to stay a month. Mrs. Ingoldsby said 
 yesterday that she would not hear of my staying 
 only a month ; but mamma may interfere and in- 
 sist on my returning home. At all events I have 
 weeks to count on and that is long enough to 
 do a great deal in, particularly with mine enemy 
 at such close quarters. Well, Mr. Ferroll In- 
 goldsby, we shall see." 
 
 Mr. Ferroll Ingoldsby did see, what she vainly 
 flattered herself she was successfully concealing, 
 that she was endeavoring to attract him. And he 
 was amused. He saw also that the face he had at 
 first considered merely pretty became much more 
 than that when daily association developed to his 
 preception each detail of its exquisite loveliness. 
 He might have fallen wilfully into the snare laid 
 for him had not his growing admiration been 
 checked by one little circumstance the suspi- 
 cion, which indeed might be called a conviction, 
 that Tom's young affections had been trifled with. 
 
 Tom was desperately in love and desperately 
 miserable that was evident at a glance ; and,
 
 188 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 judging Stella by her effort to captivate himself, 
 Ferroll blamed her for this more than she deserved 
 Tom's infatuation had been instantaneous and 
 voluntary or, more properly speaking, perhaps, 
 involuntary ; her only fault in the matter being 
 that, partly from vanity, partly from good-nature, 
 she received his adoration too kindly, thus foster- 
 ing instead of repressing it. Regarding him as a 
 mere boy, she treated him with a familiarity which 
 he found intoxicating until it was contrasted with 
 her very different manner to his brother. He saw 
 then that she gave his love no serious thought, 
 and the discovery was very wounding to his amour 
 propre. He had been gravely considering of the 
 responsibilities of married life ; and to be pulled 
 up thus abruptly in his dreams rendered him as 
 sentimentally unhapppy as a conjunction of 
 extreme youth and unsuccessful love generally 
 makes a man. 
 
 His brother, while looking upon his fancied 
 wretchedness as a folly worthy only of a smile, 
 was nevertheless sufficiently sorry for him to feel 
 a little irritated against Stella ; and, determined 
 not to afford her vanity any farther gratification 
 he carefully refrained from paying her the slight- 
 est attention not demanded by the common 
 courtesy due to a guest in his father's house. 
 
 And so day after day passed, and Stella could 
 not flatter herself that she was making the slight- 
 est progress toward her object had produced the
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE, 189 
 
 least impression on this most unimpressionable of 
 men. 
 
 " What is he made of?" she thought, as he sat 
 opposite her one morning at breakfast, reading his 
 newspaper, and never once looking up from its 
 columns, though he had only to lift his eyes in or- 
 der to take in the beautiful vision before him. She 
 was glancing at a paper herself, but was not so 
 much interested in its contents as to be deaf to 
 the conversation around her. 
 
 " Ferroll," said Mrs. Ingoldsby suddenly, " I 
 hope you are going to the ball to-night ? " 
 
 " I did not think of it," he said, lowering the 
 sheet he held and turning to her, " I rarely go to 
 balls, you know." 
 
 " But that is not saying you ought not to go to 
 them," Mrs. Ingoldsby remarked in a highly moral 
 tone. " I wish you were more social in your hab- 
 its. Suppose everybody ignored the duties of 
 social life as you do. What would the world come 
 to?" 
 
 " My dear mother," said Ferroll, with a slight 
 laugh, "your supposition demands a stretch of 
 imagination of which my ideal faculties are inca- 
 pable. The great majority of mankind are gre- 
 garious in nature. And especially in this stirring 
 age of the world there is not the least danger of 
 too many people becoming eremitical in life." 
 
 " It is your life I am thinking of," answered his 
 mother, " not the lives of other people,"
 
 190 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " As to that," he said, with a smile and tone 
 which took the rough edge off the words he was 
 about to utter, " I am afraid you will have to take 
 me as I am. And really I think you are a little 
 unreasonable. Of your three children two are 
 eminently social in instinct ; and two to one ought 
 to satisfy you. Here are Tom and Gertrude, who 
 would willingly go to a ball every night, and who 
 are going to-night, I am sure. So I think don't 
 you, father? that I may be excused." 
 
 " I think that your place will be so well supplied 
 in the family party to-night," replied Mr. In- 
 goldsby, with a smile and slight bow toward Stella 
 he was a courtly old gentleman " that, cer- 
 tainly, you may be excused." 
 
 With a flash of humor in his eyes Ferroll 
 glanced triumphantly at his mother, who smiled 
 gravely. 
 
 " You are a bad case," she said. " Your father 
 always spoiled you." 
 
 There is something very contagious in any 
 sentiment shared by numbers, albeit only an af- 
 fair of a social gathering. Ferroll Ingoldsby 
 smiled to himself that evening as he was con- 
 scious of a faint inclination to join the family 
 party going to the ball. He even went so far as 
 to say to his mother, as he wrapped her shawl 
 around her in the hall : 
 
 " Pray present my compliments and apologies
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 191 
 
 to Mrs Ross. Perhaps I may look in for a few 
 minutes during the course of the evening." 
 
 " I shall be very much gratified if you do," said 
 his mother earnestly. 
 
 But Gertrude laughed and exclaimed : " Don't 
 flatter yourself that he will remember that prom- 
 ise a minute after you are out of sight, mamma." 
 
 Her prognostication would have been fulfilled 
 but for the occurrence of an unlooked-for circum- 
 stance, Ferroll had established himself comfort- 
 ably in dressing-gown and slippers, and, utterly 
 oblivious of the promise, was holding pleasant 
 converse with one of the friends he loved a 
 solid-looking volume when there was a loud ring 
 of the door-bell. 
 
 It being late, he did not summon a servant, but 
 opened the door himself and found a telegraphic 
 messenger waiting. 
 
 " Any answer, Mr. Ingoldsby ? " the man said, 
 as he delivered the black-lettered yellow envelope 
 the unexpected sight of which is always a little 
 startling to the soundest nerves. 
 
 " I don't know," Mr. Ingoldsby replied when 
 he had glanced at the address on it. " But I will 
 ascertain at once, and will send an answer to the 
 office in less than half an hour, if one is re- 
 quired." 
 
 The message was for Miss Gordon. 
 
 When the man was gone Ferroll, after a mo- 
 mentary pause of deliberation, decided to carry
 
 192 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 the despatch to his mother and let her decide 
 whether it should be given to Miss Gordon im- 
 mediately. It might be of importance, or it might 
 not. He would not take the responsibility of 
 withholding it. And having engaged to appear 
 for a short time among Mrs. Ross' guests, he 
 thought this necessary errand an apropos re- 
 minder to him. He made a hurried toilet, and 
 a minute's walk brought him to the house of Mrs. 
 Ross, which was near by. 
 
 The night was so mild that the front door 
 was wide open : he heard the clash of music and 
 sound of dancing as he approached. His intention 
 was that, as soon as ho had made his compliments 
 to his hostess, he would find his mother and give 
 the telegram to her. But it is often as impossible 
 to control circumstances in small things as in great 
 ones. He found it so in the present instance. 
 Stella, who with one or two favored attendants 
 was established high up on the staircase, from 
 which there was a good view of the hall-door, saw 
 him as he entered. To his surprise and that of 
 her companions, she started up and hurried down- 
 stairs to meet him. 
 
 There was nothing in his face to have excited 
 her alarm, for at the moment he was not thinking 
 of the telegram. Nevertheless, one of those inex- 
 plicable intuitions which sometimes present them- 
 selves to the mind, not as possibilities but as cer- 
 tainties, took possession of Stella at sight of him.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 193 
 
 " Is anything the matter, Mr. Ingoldsby ? " she 
 asked abruptly as she came to his side. 
 
 " Why should you think so ? " he said, with a 
 smile. But a sense of uneasiness communicated 
 itself to him as he saw that she had grown a little 
 pale ; and neither his voice nor his smile was so 
 reassuring as he intended it to be. " I promised 
 my mother, you know, to " 
 
 " Something is the matter, I am sure," she in- 
 terrupted ; and, laying her hand on his arm, she 
 drew him into an unoccupied room on the op- 
 posite side of the hall. " Now tell me ! " she ex- 
 claimed, looking up in his face firmly, though the 
 blood kept ebbing from her face, leaving it mo- 
 mently paler and paler. 
 
 " My dear Miss Gordon," said Ferroll, shrink- 
 ing, it must be confessed, from the scene he feared 
 might be impending, and feeling that his mother, 
 not he, was the proper person to face it, yet un- 
 able to resist the questioning of her eye, " you are 
 alarming yourself without cause, I hope. A tele- 
 gram for you was delivered a few minutes ago, 
 and I thought I would bring it to my mother " 
 
 He paused, as Stella extended her hand with 
 an imperative motion not to be disobeyed, and, 
 taking the dispatch from his pocket, gave it to 
 her. 
 
 With trembling fingers, she tore open the en- 
 velope and unfolded the enclosure. 
 
 As her eyes fell on the words it contained 
 13
 
 194 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 everything grew dark before her sight ; she reeled, 
 and would have fallen if Mr. Ingoldsby had not 
 caught her in his arms and supported her to a 
 seat. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked, forgetting ceremony 
 in the excitement of the moment. 
 
 She lifted her hand as if with difficulty, and 
 held toward him the unfolded paper. He took it 
 hastily, and read : 
 
 " Mrs. Gordon has met with an accident which may 
 prove fatal. 
 
 " JAMES MCDONALD." 

 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WITHOUT a word of comment Ferroll pulled 
 out his watch, gave one glance at it, and said 
 quickly but quietly : 
 
 " We shall have time to catch the twelve-o'clock 
 train, if you will come home at once and change 
 your dress." 
 
 She started to her feet, and was turning blindly 
 to rush away when he seized her hand and stopped 
 her. 
 
 " I must get something to put around you," he 
 said. 
 
 " No, no ! No need to wait for that. It is only 
 a few steps," she answered. 
 
 As this was true and time was pressing, he did 
 not insist on staying to procure a wrap, but, draw- 
 ing her hand within his arm, led her without delay 
 through a side entrance into the street, crossing 
 which they soon reached their destination. 
 
 As they entered the hall both looked up at the 
 tall clock, the ticking of which reminded them 
 that it was there. 
 
 " Oh ! it is nearly twelve o'clock," cried Stella 
 in an agony. " I shall not get to the station in 
 time ! Let us go at once let us go at once .' My 
 dress makes no difference." 
 
 (195)
 
 196 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " The train is not due till 12.20, and that clock 
 is always fast. We shall have full time," answered 
 Ferroll. " Only be quick in changing your dress 
 while I order the carriage. I will see if I can find 
 a servant to send to you." 
 
 " Never mind that," she answered, running up- 
 stairs. 
 
 The gas was burning low in the room she 
 entered, and, attempting to turn it up, in her ner- 
 vous haste she turned it off, leaving herself in 
 darkness. Shaking her hands and exclaiming with 
 impatient terror, she groped about in search of a 
 box of matches which she knew was somewhere 
 about. " Somewhere ! " she kept repeating to her- 
 self as she knocked over toilet-bottles and stum- 
 bled against chairs, consuming precious minutes 
 before she at last succeeded in finding them. Just 
 as she lighted the gas again the clock struck 
 twelve. 
 
 " O h ! " she cried despairingly, and began, as 
 well as the trembling of her hands would permit, 
 to unfasten her dress, but stopped on hearing 
 Ferroll's step upon the stairs. 
 
 " Are you ready ? " he called to her as he ap- 
 proached the door. 
 
 " I will be there in an instant," she responded. 
 
 Looking around desperately, she snatched up an 
 ulster which chanced to catch her eye, seized a hat 
 and veil, and ran out to him. 
 
 He was surprised to see her still in her ball-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 197 
 
 dress, but, shocked by her white, scared look, ven- 
 tured no remark on the subject. Leading the way 
 down-stairs, he paused an instant before leaving 
 the house to put the ulster on her and to place 
 her hat on her head. She had been carrying both 
 in her hand. A moment later they were in the 
 carriage, dashing furiously along toward the sta- 
 tion. 
 
 Before they were half way there the distant 
 rumble of the train as it was approaching became 
 audible. Stella grasped her companion's arm with 
 a force that almost drew an exclamation of pain 
 from him. 
 
 " Don't be alarmed. We shall be in time," he 
 said encouragingly. 
 
 But the rush of the train grew clearer and 
 louder every second ; they could hear the stroke 
 of the engine now, and knew by its diminishing 
 speed that it had nearly reached the station ; now 
 the whistle sounded. 
 
 Stella uttered a sharp cry. " I shall be left ! I 
 shall be left ! " she exclaimed distractedly. 
 
 " No ; here we are ! " 
 
 He put out his hand and unfastened the car- 
 riage-door, and, the instant they drew up with a 
 jerk at the end of the station-platform, flung it 
 open and sprang to the ground, Stella following 
 him almost before he could turn to assist her. A 
 train was standing puffing and snorting before 
 them, and he was leading Stella toward it when
 
 198 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 he bethought him that this was the wrong direc- 
 tion for the engine of the train he was looking for 
 to be. 
 
 "Where is the down-train? " he asked rapidly 
 of a negro boy standing near. 
 
 " Yonder, sir, in front, the other side of this 
 one," was the reply. 
 
 Ferroll seized Stella's hand. " We must hurry," 
 he said. " It stops only three minutes." 
 
 Before hia last words were uttered they were 
 literally running down the long platform. As 
 they started Stella's train caught on a splinter of 
 the flooring and held her fast, but Ferroll tore it 
 off with an audible rending of silk, and, to pre- 
 vent a repetition of the accident, carried it with 
 one hand, while with the other he grasped Stella's 
 fingers, and they ran on. Both uttered a silent 
 ejaculation of thanksgiving when they came to 
 . the end of the train that shut them off from the 
 one they were seeking ; side by side they sprang 
 from the platform to the ground, crossed the inter- 
 vening track, and found themselves at last beside 
 the down-train, which, fortunately, was still sta- 
 tionary. Ferroll was out of breath himself and 
 Stella was gasping when he half-lifted, half-dragged 
 her up the high steps to the platform of the first 
 car they came to. 
 
 She pressed his hand with a look of gratitude 
 more expressive than words when he had placed 
 
 ie had pla<
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 199 
 
 her in a seat. " Give my love to Gertrude," she 
 commenced falteringly, " and " 
 
 " I am going with you" he said. 
 
 " Oh ! pray do not. I have caused you trouble 
 enough already. Indeed I can go alone perfectly 
 now." 
 
 " But " he began in a tone of remonstrance, 
 then checked himself, said " Very well," and left 
 her. 
 
 Retiring a little distance behind, he flung him- 
 self into a seat with a deep breath of relief as the 
 train, with a sudden movement almost like the 
 bound of an impatient horse, was off. 
 
 Stella sat like a statue where she had been 
 placed. So long as she was goaded on by the 
 necessity for action she had been able to exert 
 herself and to control her thoughts somewhat. 
 She felt perfectly nerveless now, and her brain 
 was in a whirl. 
 
 " An accident which may prove fatal an acci- 
 dent which may prove fatal an accident which 
 may prove fatal " 
 
 If she had possessed the muscular power to lift 
 her hands she would have held them over her ears 
 to shut out the sound of these terrible words that 
 seemed ringing through them. An accident ! 
 What sort of accident? The term represented 
 only one idea to her mind fire. Oh I was her 
 mother 'writhing in the indescribable agonies 
 caused by burning ? Or perhaps but no ; that
 
 200 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 thought was too horrible ! She turned from it 
 with an inarticulate gasp which would have been 
 a cry, if her tongue had not been like lead in her 
 mouth. A strong, convulsive shudder seized her ; 
 she shook so perceptively that Ferroll noticed it, 
 sprang up in voluntarily and made a step forward, 
 but stood still then, doubtful whether to go to her 
 or not. 
 
 He thought it no wonder that she was cold. A 
 ball-dress is not very well adapted to the exi- 
 gencies of night travel in January, even in a 
 warm climate and well-heated car ; and the wrap 
 she wore was a very light one. Mr. Ingoldsby 
 was much concerned, therefore, as, standing tall 
 and solitary in the aisle of the car, he looked 
 across two or three seats, the occupants of 
 which were reclining doubled up in various at- 
 titudes of slumber, to where she sat bolt up- 
 right and shivering. 
 
 His precipitate movement when he left his 
 place disturbed his opposite neighbor, a young 
 man who was dozing uneasily, with his feet 
 resting on the arm of the seat and his head and 
 shoulders propped against the side of the car. 
 With something like a groan of discomfort he 
 made a little change in his position, and was 
 about to compose himself again to his slumbers 
 when, by an impulse, he opened his eyes and 
 looked at the figure standing motionless near him. 
 As he looked his eye quickened with recognition.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE, 201 
 
 " Ingoldsby ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 Ferroll turned at the sound of his name, and 
 took the hand which the other, who had started 
 to a sitting posture, held out, shaking it warmly. 
 
 " Haralson ! I am delighted to see you. Where 
 did you drop from ? How are you ? " he said. 
 
 " I am on my way home from Richmond, and I 
 am as stiff as a poker,"answered Mr. Haralson cat- 
 egorically. 
 
 He pushed back the tumbled little crisps of 
 light brown hair from his very handsome forehead 
 and with a grimace of impatience tore off a white 
 silk handkerchief that was tied carelessly about 
 his throat. 
 
 " How warm it is ! " he exclaimed " quite a 
 different temperature from the one I left a few 
 hours ago. And how uncomfortable it is to try 
 to sleep on one of these seats ! But I can't stand 
 being stifled in a sleeping-car in this latitude." 
 
 " I wish I had happen ed to get into the sleep- 
 ing-car," said Ferroll, turning his head to glance 
 at Stella. " But we were fortunate to have hit 
 this one ; we might have struck the smoking- 
 car." 
 
 Seeing that his friend's glance had followed his 
 own with an expression of curiosity, and now 
 fixed itself with surprise on his evening dress, he 
 leant over and explained where and on what er- 
 rand he was going ; then, having despoiled Mr. 
 Haralson of a heavy overcoat which had made
 
 202 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 that gentleman's pillow, and the handkerchief just 
 taken off, he rather hesitatingly approached 
 Stella. 
 
 " Forgive me for disturbing you," he said very 
 gently, " but pray let me try to make you a little 
 less uncomfortable than I am sure you must be. 
 You are chilled. Corne nearer the stove." 
 
 Stella, yielding more to the tone than the words, 
 allowed him to lead her to a seat beside the stove. 
 As he was tying the handkerchief around her 
 neck and buttoning her ulster, which hung care- 
 lessly open, said : 
 
 "I am not cold, but oh ! I am so wretched." 
 
 The words seemed to burst from her lips sud- 
 denly, almost without volition on her part. 
 
 " It is natural that you should be distressed," 
 said Ferroll kindly ; " but you are more alarmed 
 than I should be were I in your place. There is 
 always so much excitement felt about an accident, 
 particularly at first, that one must allow a wide 
 margin for exaggeration of speech." 
 
 " Do you think so ? " she said eagerly. 
 
 " I really do." 
 
 "But the telegram ? " she suggested in a tone 
 of sickening apprehension. 
 
 " That was written and sent hastily, no doubt. 
 Who sent it, by the way ? " 
 
 "Our family physician, Dr. McDonald. That 
 is why I am so alarmed."
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 203 
 
 " What sort of man is he sanguine or despon- 
 dent generally about his patients ?" 
 
 " Very despondent." 
 
 "And you allow yourself to be so frightened ? 
 Why, my dear Miss Gordon, I feel quite reas- 
 sured since you tell me this. Stop and think a 
 moment, and you will remember that the greater 
 number of accidents you ever heard of were con- 
 sidered worse at first than they afterwards proved 
 to be. A slight one is thought serious, and a 
 serious one desperate, as a rule. And since Dr. 
 McDonald is not, you say, a cheerful man in the 
 way of viewing medical matters, I have no doubt 
 he has unintentionally exaggerated the gravity of 
 this accident. Try to go to sleep, or you will 
 be quite exhausted when you reach M at day- 
 light." 
 
 He tucked her up carefully in the overcoat and 
 left her a little comforted. Recalling what he had 
 said, she thought it very reasonable ; and, more- 
 over, the first stunning effect of the shock being 
 over by this time, there came a natural reaction 
 of hopefulness. She had never in her life had a 
 serious grief or misfortune, and was therefore un- 
 able to realize the possibility of such a thing. 
 Then Ferroll's care had made her very comfort- 
 able in a bodily sense, and the excitements of the 
 evening, both pleasurable and painful, had greatly 
 tired her. Without any premonition sleep fell 
 suddenly on her eyelids.
 
 204 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 An hour afterwards she was awakened by the 
 sound of the whistle as the train drew up at a 
 station. There was the usual slight stir among 
 the slumbering passengers, a few sleepy exclama- 
 tions and sighs, a few words exchanged, and then 
 everybody became silent and still again. 
 
 Everybody but Stella. She had slept soundly 
 and was refreshed ; and the moment she was 
 awake her first alarm returned in full force. 
 She felt impatient of the loss of an instant's time, 
 and seemed to her that the prescribed three min- 
 utes for the stopping of the train were lengthening 
 themselves indefinitely. Could it be only three 
 minutes, she wondered presently, since she had 
 been wakened by the whistle and the sudden 
 cessation of movement ? Surely it was more than 
 that. She started up, and, bending toward the 
 light, examined her watch. It had stopped. Ris- 
 ing from her seat, she looked about her in search 
 of Ferroll, but he was not to be seen. She 
 walked to the door at the rear end of the car and 
 glanced out. Darkness and the sleeping-car were 
 all that met her sight. 
 
 Turning, she passed between the two rows of 
 seats and their unconscious occupants to the op- 
 posite door-, and at last her perseverance was re- 
 warded. As she pulled the door noiselessly open 
 she heard Ferroll's voice inquiring in a tone of 
 concern : 
 
 " And how long shall we be detained ? "
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 205 
 
 " She'll be up in about a quarter of an hour 
 /iow. The conductor's this minute got a tele- 
 gram," was the reply of a train-hand who was 
 passing the car as he spoke. 
 
 Ferroll stood just outside the door, but with 
 his back to it, so that he did not see Stella, and 
 she was about to address him when a puff of 
 cigar-smoke floated into her face and another voice 
 near him exclaimed: 
 
 " Just my luck ! The same thing happened as I 
 went on. Ned Southgate, who was on his way to 
 Baltimore to take the Allan Line steamer, was 
 very much afraid he would lose his passage, we 
 were so much behind-time. By the way, what has 
 Miss Gordon done with Gartrell ? You know, of 
 course, that she broke with Southgate on Gar- 
 trell's account." 
 
 " Did she ? " said Ferroll in a tone evincing no 
 great interest. " I have little acquaintance with 
 her ; never met her until about a week ago. She 
 is a friend of my sister, whom she has been visiting. 
 That is all I know about her." 
 
 " It is a wonder you don't know a good deal 
 more after being in the same house with her a 
 week," remarked Mr. Haralson. "She has the 
 character of being a consummate flirt and co- 
 quette." 
 
 " He who runs may read that," said his friend. 
 " But flirting or being flirted with is a thing not 
 in my line."
 
 206 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " She didn't pay you the compliment of riddling 
 you, then ? " 
 
 " No," answered Ingoldsby, with a slight laugh. 
 " I fancy she had as much on her hands as she 
 could attend to before I appeared upon the scene. 
 She made mincemeat of poor Tom and half a 
 dozen others, I believe." 
 
 " I should like to exchange broadsides with 
 her," observed Mr. Haralson, in a tone which 
 indicated that he had no fear of what the result 
 in that case would be as regarded himself. " I 
 
 went to M twice on purpose to see her, but 
 
 she was from home both times. She must be out 
 of the common to have tackled Gartrell success- 
 fully." 
 
 "She would need to be so much out of the 
 common to have done that," said Ingoldsby, " that 
 I am incredulous of the alleged fact. Gartrell is 
 the last man in the world not to be able to hold 
 his own with any woman in an affair of this kind. 
 That he could be made a fool of by a girl like this 
 almost a child is inconceivable. It is much 
 more probable that he was trifling with her than 
 she with him." 
 
 " There's no telling," said Mr. Haralson, send- 
 ing another whiff of smoke into Stella's face, as 
 she stood unconsciously riveted to the spot, for- 
 getting for the instant even her anxiety about her 
 mother in the pungent mortification she felt at 
 hearing herself spoken of in such a manner.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 207 
 
 " Brant Townsley, who was my informant in the 
 matter, don't believe that she discarded Southgate, 
 as reported. He thinks the hitch was the other 
 way, though he says he could not make South- 
 gate admit this. But he suspects that she did 
 reject Gartrell. " 
 
 Stella stayed to hear no more. Softly closing 
 the door, which she had been holding very slightly 
 ajar, she returned in haste to her place beside the 
 stove with an additional and all but intolerable 
 pain gnawing at her heart. The sense of morti- 
 fied vanity of which she had been sensible when 
 she heard Ferroll's laugh at Mr. Haralson's ques- 
 tion, and knew by its ring of amusement that, 
 though he was too dignified to say so, he had 
 perceived her attempt to captivate him, was lost 
 in a much stronger emotion remorse for the 
 anger and coldness she had shown to her mother. 
 Haralson's careless, gossiping remarks about 
 Southgate and Gartrell brought it all back so 
 vividly to her recollection, and she saw so plainly 
 now how entirely the whole affair her quarrel 
 with Southgate and her mother's advocacy of 
 Gartrell's suit had originated in her own inor- 
 dinate vanity and self-will. 
 
 She was reclining very much as Ferroll had left 
 her, with her eyes wide open and fixed in a sort 
 of hopeless gaze on vacancy, when he came to her 
 side a few minutes afterwards, followed by a 
 servant carrying a salver.
 
 208 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " What is the matter that we are stopping so 
 long ? " she exclaimed in a despairing tone when 
 she saw him. 
 
 " The train from the other direction was not on 
 time," he explained ; " but it will be up in a few 
 minutes now, the conductor says. I scarcely 
 regret the detention, since it has enabled me to 
 get you some supper. If you do not take some- 
 thing," he added, seeing her about to decline it, 
 "you will have a violent headache to-morrow 
 after such a night as you have passed. Let me 
 prevail on you to drink this coffee, at least." 
 
 She received the cup he offered, and drank the 
 coffee as if it had been a draught prescribed by a 
 physician, but shook her head when he further 
 suggested a biscuit. 
 
 " I feel as if food would choke me," she said. 
 
 The remaining hours of the night seemed to her 
 interminably long. Yet when the end of her 
 journey was approaching, when suspense would 
 soon be succeeded by she knew not what horrible 
 certainty, she almost wished to prolong even her 
 present suffering. She felt faint to the tips of her 
 fingers. When Ferroll joined her, as the train 
 began to slacken speed, it was almost a matter of 
 doubt with her whether she would be able to rise 
 from her seat and walk out of the car. 
 
 It was just after daylight as, more supported 
 than led by her kind escort, she left the train.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 209 
 
 ** Come into the waiting-room a minute," Fer- 
 roll said, " and I will get you a glass of water." 
 
 She was permitting him to take her there for 
 she almost feared, as he did, that she might 
 faint when a gentleman approached hastily. 
 
 " Stella ! " said her father's voice, and she turned 
 with a scarcely articulate cry of " Papa ! " 
 
 " Your mother is a little better," Mr. Gordon 
 said at once, in answer to the unspoken question 
 in her eyes. 
 
 " Thank God ! " she exclaimed, and a flood of 
 tears, the first she had shed, poured suddenly 
 down her cheeks. But she controlled herself 
 almost immediately and said: 
 
 " This is Mr. Ingoldsby, papa. You must thank 
 him for me, he has been so very, very kind." 
 14
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 LATE in the afternoon of the day before Mrs. 
 Gordon was driving near a railway track, and her 
 horses, which were young and not thoroughly 
 broken to the sound of a steam-whistle, ran away. 
 Had she remained quietly in her seat no harm 
 would have happened to her, as the driver soon 
 succeeded in controlling the animals. But being 
 alone in the carriage and extremely frightened, 
 she managed to open the door and throw herself 
 out. 
 
 She fell heavily to the ground, striking her 
 head against the sharp edge of a stone, which cut 
 a deep gash in her temple near the artery, causing 
 profuse loss of blood ; added to which one of her 
 ankles was so bruised and fractured as to make it 
 
 a question with the medical men of M , the 
 
 principal of whom were soon surrounding her, 
 whether immediate amputation of the limb was 
 not absolutely necessary. 
 
 Having decided, on a hasty consultation upon 
 the spot where the accident occurred, to defer such 
 an extreme measure, for the time at least, the un- 
 fortunate lady was conveyed home slowly and 
 with great difficulty. It was not considered safe 
 to administer an ansesthetic, and hours passed be- 
 (210)
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 211 
 
 fore she could be brought under the influence of 
 opium. At last, however, her groans of agony 
 ceased to rack the ear of her husband, and then 
 he remembered Stella. 
 
 Just as the thought of her occurred to him his 
 sister-in-law, Mrs. Rainsforth, laid her hand on his 
 arm and said : 
 
 "That poor child, Roland! Have you tele- 
 graphed her yet ? " 
 
 " No, I did not think of her until a minute 
 ago," he answered. " I will ask McDonald, who 
 is going home for an hour or two, to call at the 
 office and send a message. If it is too late for 
 her to receive it in time to take the night train, it 
 will be delivered very early in the morning." 
 
 " It is a good thing that she has escaped all she 
 would have suffered if she had been here this 
 evening," remarked Mrs. Rainsforth, pressing her 
 handkerchief to her eyes. 
 
 " Yes ; I am glad she was not at home," re- 
 sponded Mr. Gordon. 
 
 Dr. McDonald went farther than this in his feeling 
 on the subject the next day. He wished that she 
 had not been permitted to come home, and 
 bluntly suggested to her father and her aunt that 
 she should be sent to the house of the latter, and 
 kept there, he added, emphatically, as long as 
 Mrs. Gordon continued in her present critical 
 state. 
 
 " I have no patience with such folly ! " he said
 
 212 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 angrily to Mrs. Rainsforth, as they stood together 
 beside Stella's bed the morning after her return. 
 " If she don't choose to make herself useful, as 
 she ought, she might at least keep quiet and not 
 be distracting your attention and mine from 
 the care that her mother's desperate condition 
 requires." 
 
 " Hush, hush, doctor ! " said his companion a 
 little indignantly. "She will hear you. You 
 must remember what a shock it was to her to find 
 her mother in such a state." 
 
 Before the doctor could reply Stella opened her 
 eyes, that looked large and hollow out of a face as 
 white as marble, and fixed them on Mrs. Rains- 
 forth's. " O Aunt Isabella ! is mamma no better ? " 
 she said faintly. 
 
 " Not much, my dear," replied her aunt, pushing 
 the hair back gently from her forehead ; " but I 
 hope you are. Won't you try and take some 
 breakfast this morning ? " 
 
 "Yes. I heard what Dr. McDonald said," she 
 went on meekly. " I suppose I ought not to have 
 been so weak but " 
 
 "You could not help it," said Mrs. Rainsforth 
 soothingly. " We all know that." 
 
 " I will try to control myself. Can't you give 
 me something?" she asked, looking up at the doc- 
 tor wistfully. " I feel so faint." 
 
 " I will send you a draught," he answered un-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 213 
 
 graciously. " But you must stop crying, and take 
 your breakfast if you want to gain strength." 
 
 "I will," she answered. 
 
 "How long have I been at home?" she in- 
 quired of her maid presently while trying to take 
 a little food. " Only since yesterday morning ! 
 It seems to me a century instead of twenty-four 
 hours!" 
 
 She felt as if she was in a horrible dream. All 
 seemed indistinct, inconsistent, incredible, yet she 
 knew it was a monstrous reality. She could dimly 
 recollect having made a terrible scene at her 
 mother's bedside when, on entering the darkened 
 chamber, she had found Mrs. Gordon lying color- 
 less, motionless, unconscious of her presence, 
 deaf to her passionate adjurations. She could see 
 as through a mist the fiery glance of Dr. McDon- 
 ald, and feel the fierce grip of his bony hands as, 
 seizing her by the shoulders, he forcibly removed 
 her from the room, asking harshly, while hurrying 
 her along, if she " wanted to kill her mother," 
 that she was acting in this irrational manner! 
 Then came a succession of confused memories of 
 having been rescued from the irate physician by 
 feminine tongues and hands, and, with much ex- 
 pression of sympathy and no slight resistance on 
 her part, taken to her own room ; of frantic grief 
 and hysterical weeping ; of her father's standing 
 beside her with a glass of wine which he insisted 
 on her drinking, and which turned out not to be
 
 l4 BELLA'S 
 
 wine after all when she did drink it, but a draught 
 bitter as the tears she was shedding; of being 
 very sleepy and struggling against the influence 
 of the opiate she had been made to swallow ; of 
 waking from deep unconsciousness with horrible 
 sensations of nausea and exhaustion, and being 
 sent off to sleep again by another anodyne, from 
 which sleep she was now just awakened. 
 
 Very dark to Mrs. Gordon's household were the 
 days which followed days lengthening into weeks, 
 until more than a month passed before the physi- 
 cians gave any definite hope that her life was 
 safe.; 
 
 In all this period Stella, having once recovered 
 from the stupefaction of her first shock, was ca- 
 pable and energetic, untiring in her devotion to 
 her mother ; for the first time in her life for- 
 getting herself utterly in thought for the suf- 
 ferer. Anxious waitings for the appearance of 
 the doctors, solicitous pains in the preparation of 
 bandages, and all the numerous cares required by 
 desperate illness occupied fully each minute as it 
 came and went ; and when she could snatch a few 
 hours for sleep at irregular intervals overwearied 
 nature sank at once into dreamless and refreshing 
 slumber. 
 
 But after the crisis was past, when the medi- 
 cal opinion pronounced that the danger was 
 over, that time, care, and patience would restore 
 to Mrs. Gordon the use of her ankle and re-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 215 
 
 establish her general health (which was very 
 much deranged by the shock to her nerves and 
 the quantities of opium she had been obliged to 
 take), then came to Stella the inevitable reaction 
 after such unusual and prolonged exertion 
 bodily exhaustion and a listlessness of spirit 
 amounting almost to despair. 
 
 Worldly, shallow, and selfish when in health, 
 Mrs. Gordon was intolerably irritable, egotistical, 
 and exacting now. She demanded constant 
 amusement, yet was capricious and hard to please 
 about it ; and she resented as an outrage and 
 cruelty the slightest contradiction of her will or 
 opinion. Still suffering severely, it seemed as if 
 she was determined that every one around her 
 should, though in a different way, suffer also. 
 
 Stella's patience and temper were sorely tried. 
 The change from a life of absolute freedom and 
 unchecked indulgence to what she felt a galling 
 bondage, this subjection to the fretful caprices of 
 her mother, had been so sudden that she often 
 asked herself how it could be possible that she, 
 Stella, the petted and spoiled child, whose every 
 whim was wont to be gratified as soon as ex- 
 pressed, should have fallen on such evil days ! 
 She was weary even unto death of the existence 
 that had closed around her ; and nothing but a 
 vivid remembrance of the remorse she had al- 
 ready endured for her conduct to her mother en- 
 abled her to support it uncomplainingly.
 
 216 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 But when at length Mrs. Gordon finding her 
 unquestioningly submissive in everything else, 
 began to agitate the subject of Mr. Gartrell's 
 suit evidently expecting submission here, too 
 Stella's spirit revived and asserted itself. 
 
 " If you think it likely, as you say, mamma, 
 that Mr. Gartrell has any idea of offering him- 
 self again, it would be an act of friendship in 
 you, who seem to have so great a regard for 
 him, to warn him not to think of it," she said 
 one day in reply to some suggestion on the sub- 
 ject from her mother. 
 
 " But why ? " cried Mrs. Gordon sharply. " You 
 cannot possibly expect ever to make a more ad- 
 vantageous marriage." 
 
 This was an argument that had been so often 
 repeated that Stella's patience was threadbare at 
 the sound. A spark of vivid anger leapt to her 
 eyes, and bitter words were on her lips, when 
 the entrance of a visitor a kindly gossip who 
 pleased herself and lightened the tedium of Mrs. 
 Gordon's sick-room by coming often to sit with 
 her prevented the threatened explosion of wrath. 
 Heartily glad of the respite afforded by Mrs. 
 Austin's presence, Stella hurried to her own room 
 and sat down to think. 
 
 " This is but the beginning," she said to herself. 
 " It will go on and on interminably, I know. 
 And am I sure that I shall have the resolution to 
 resist the constant persecution I must expect?
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 217 
 
 I feel angry now and quite capable of defiance ; 
 but I am afraid it may be with this as it has 
 been with so many other things lately. I grow 
 so tired of being always on the defensive, always 
 on a strain of resistance. After all, my temper is 
 not so bad as it used to seem. I find it easier to 
 yield a point than to take the trouble to contest 
 it. If I had ever been taught how to control my- 
 self I j^think I might have been different always. 
 But it is too late now to regret what is past. 
 There is no good in thinking of it." 
 
 She rose abruptly, went to a set of bookshelves, 
 and began carelessly to look for something to read. 
 Chance, perhaps or perhaps her guardian angel 
 directed her attention to a small black volume 
 which she had not seen for some time, the very 
 existence of which, in fact, she had forgotten. It 
 had been thrust back to the wall out of sight, on 
 the top of some larger books, in taking out one of 
 which it was displaced and fell to the floor at her 
 feet. 
 
 As she stooped to pick it up her heart gave a 
 quick, painful bound. It was a Manual of Devo- 
 tion to the Sacred Heart, which had been given to 
 her by Southgate.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LATTERLY her mind had been so fully occupied 
 with other things that she had thought of South- 
 gate rarely if at all. But a throng of recollec- 
 tions crowded on her now. How well she remem- 
 bered the expression of his face, the intonations 
 of his voice, the very words he had spoken, when 
 he gave the little Manual to her, and begged her 
 to use it and to try to realize that there was 
 another world than this which alone seemed to 
 engross her thoughts ! How earnestly he had 
 endeavored to rouse her to some sense of devotion, 
 some recognition of the fact that she possessed a 
 soul ! And how signally he had failed in the at- 
 tempt, seemingly ! 
 
 Had he really failed ? " Tfiat which thou sowest 
 is not quickened except it die first" said the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles. The seed so laboriously 
 cast upon a soil which had never been loosened by 
 early culture lay dead until the ploughshare of 
 affliction passed and broke the crust of selfishness 
 that made the surface of Stella's character. But 
 when her thoughts were drawn from the sole con- 
 sideration of her own wishes, will, and pleasure 
 by grief at her mother's accident and sympathy 
 with the suffering it entailed, the apparently life- 
 (218)
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 219 
 
 less germs became vivified, and slowly, impercep- 
 tibly even to herself, they had been growing. 
 
 She had often found in the atmosphere of her 
 lover's presence a certain calm of spirit which she 
 attributed at the time to the pleasure that his pres- 
 ence gave her, but which now she began to under- 
 stand was the reflected tranquillity of a soul 
 unruffled by worldly thoughts and interests. 
 " Oh ! " was the aspiration of her soul at this 
 moment, " for one hour of that calm, that peace, 
 which she had known for so short a time, but 
 remembered with such inexpressible longing." 
 Sitting down, she opened the Manual at the first 
 fly-leaf, on which she knew Southgate had written 
 her name. She wanted some tangible association 
 to bring him, as it were, close to her not as a 
 lover, but as an influence, a guide to her tired 
 spirit. Beneath her name and the date appended 
 was transcribed a verse from Isaias, to which he 
 had directed her attention, she recollected. 
 
 " Is it not beautiful ? " he said. 
 
 " ' A man shall be as when one is hid from the 
 wind, and hideth himself from the storm; as rivers 
 of waters in drought, and the shadow of a rock that 
 standeth out in a desert land,' " she read aloud. 
 Then, after a momentary pause, " Very beautiful, 
 very poetical," she replied. "But to tell you the 
 truth, Edward, I do not quite understand its sig- 
 nificance." 
 
 " Is it possible you do not ! " Southgate had ex-
 
 220 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 claimed, with such a shocked expression of coun- 
 tenance that she laughed heartily. 
 
 Looking at this magnificent prophecy now, she 
 not only understood but felt it deeply. As sud- 
 denly as the rays of the sun flash over the earth 
 when day dawns in the tropics, the light of faith 
 illuminated her hitherto unenlightened mind. 
 She prayed that night before she slept, not merely 
 with her lips but with her heart ; the next morn- 
 ing she rose and went to early Mass ; in the after- 
 noon she went to the priest. In a word, she 
 became from this time in reality what before she 
 had been in name only a Catholic. 
 
 The change in her was very great. She grew 
 gentle and patient in manner, quiet and resolute 
 in character, habitually cheerful instead of capri- 
 ciously gay. 
 
 But though noticeable from the first, the trans- 
 formation was gradual. The science of the saints 
 is not acquired in a day. It is with pain and 
 struggle that the soul casts off the habits and 
 tramples upon the impulses of the natural man. 
 Like a child's first tottering attempts to walk, or 
 the faltering steps of one who has been ill almost 
 unto death, are the first efforts of a newly -awak- 
 ened conscience in the paths of holiness. Spirit 
 and flesh are at war, and sometimes the one and 
 sometimes the other gains a momentary advantage. 
 
 Thus it was with Stella. There were brief sea- 
 sons when she was ineffably calm and happy ; but
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 221 
 
 oftener she was all but despairing, all but inclined 
 to turn from the narrow, rugged, steeply ascend- 
 ing path which bruised and wounded her silken- 
 sandalled feet to the broad, smooth way that 
 sloped so gently downward and was so familiar to 
 her tread. One thing by which she was particu- 
 larly discouraged was her disinclination to devo- 
 tional practices and reading. She was subject to 
 constant distractions during prayer and medita- 
 tion, and even while assisting at the Holy Sacri- 
 fice. 
 
 "You need not be discouraged by this," her 
 confessor said when she laid her trouble before 
 him, "or at all surprised. Read the lives of the 
 saints and you will find that on the road to per- 
 fection of life, as in everything else, the first steps 
 are always the hardest. Have patience, and the 
 way will grow more easy and your strength will 
 increase. If you encounter no difficulties where 
 would be your merit ? You must distinguish, too, 
 between wilful transgressions and those errors and 
 shortcomings which result from our natural human 
 infirmity. Call upon Our Lady for her all-powerful 
 help. Even among the saints her special clients 
 are pre-eminent in holiness. I think you told me 
 that you have The Spiritual Combat ? Well, it is 
 exactly what you need. Study it daily. Most of 
 all, remember the dream of St. Simeon Stylites. 
 Dig deep, deep, deep your foundation of hu- 
 mility."
 
 222 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Reassured and reanimated by such counsels as 
 these, Stella pressed on with fervor in her spir- 
 itual life. But many times she found the cross 
 very heavy. 
 
 So long as Mrs. Gordon was confined to her own 
 room, and obliged to restrict herself, as regarded 
 social amusements, within certain limits laid down 
 by her autocrat for the time, Dr. McDonald, mat- 
 ters were not so bad. She had lady friends in 
 numbers, and, for a part of each day at least, 
 Stella was relieved by some visitor from the duty 
 of entertaining the exigent invalid. But the mo- 
 ment that it was possible for her to be moved 
 even before she could help herself by the aid of 
 crutches she migrated to the back drawing- 
 room, which she had caused to be fitted up tem- 
 porarily as a chamber. Here, reclining on a sofa 
 placed immediately before the folding-doors that 
 opened into the front drawing-room, and flanked 
 by an immense cretonne screen, she received all 
 
 the world of M (all her world), individually 
 
 and collectively, with rapturous delight at her 
 emancipation from what she called her late soli- 
 tary confinement. And unsparing as her demands 
 upon Stella's time and attention had been from 
 the first, she was now, if possible, more unreason- 
 able than ever in requiring her constant presence. 
 The motive of this soon became obvious. Among 
 her earliest and most frequent visitors was Mr. 
 Gartrell ; and Stella found herself the victim of a
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 223 
 
 tacit conspiracy between her mother and this per- 
 tinacious suitor to commit her to an apparently 
 voluntary acceptance of his attentions again. 
 
 Miss Gordon's health was suffering, he feared, 
 for want of exercise ; she was looking pale, he was 
 sorry to perceive, Mr. Gartrell said, with respect- 
 ful interest, the first day he was admitted to a 
 personal interview with Mrs. Gordon, at which 
 interview Miss Gordon was compelled most un- 
 willingly to assist. Might he be permitted to 
 suggest a drive ? His horses were at the gate ; 
 would not Mrs. Gordon support his position by her 
 influence ? 
 
 Mrs. Gordon smiled graciously. 
 
 "By all means go, Stella," she said. "A 
 breath of fresh air will do you good. Put on your 
 things and go at once, my dear, while it is early 
 and the sun is warm." 
 
 But Stella excused herself. " You are very 
 kind, but I assure you my health is not suffering," 
 she said to Mr. Gartrell ; " and " turning to Mrs. 
 Gordon " if you can spare me, mamma, I will go 
 and answer some letters that have been haunting 
 me for a week past." 
 
 She had to encounter a storm from her mother 
 on Gartrell's departure, and many succeeding 
 storms as the days and weeks dragged on without 
 that gentleman's making any progress whatever in 
 her favor. He was as much in earnest in his de- 
 termination to win his suit as Mrs. Gordon could pos-
 
 224 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 sibly desire. But he did not make himself in the 
 least disagreeable in consequence. After receiving 
 one or two distant rebuffs he let Stella alone, to all 
 appearance. He discontinued asking her to ride 
 or drive, he never joined her if he met her walk- 
 ing, yet at the same time managed to convey to 
 her, by a certain tone of manner imperceptible to 
 any one but herself, the expression of his unal- 
 terable resolve to make her his wife in the end. 
 
 Meanwhile his regard for Mrs. Gordon mani- 
 fested itself almost daily in the elegant forms of 
 flowers, fruits, books, or more substantially in fish 
 and game. And that lady, deeply touched by 
 these evidences of his eligibility as a son-in-law, 
 was in despair and in rage at her daughter's ob- 
 stinate folly in having lost, as she supposed, such 
 a parti. 
 
 Naturally she attributed this folly on Stella's 
 part to a lingering regard for her faithless lover 
 it was by that title that Mrs. Gordon was in the 
 habit of designating Southgate in her frequent 
 allusions to him] and the Catholic faith was so 
 inseparably associated with Southgate that her 
 dislike to him soon began to cause with her a feel- 
 ing of enmity toward the church strongly in con- 
 trast to the passive good-will she had heretofore 
 entertained toward it. The change in Stella from 
 frivolous worldliness to earnest piety vexed and 
 disgusted her beyond measure ; and she never let
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 225 
 
 pass an opportunity to express her opinion on the 
 subject, either privately or publicly. 
 
 She supposed, she said dryly one day when, 
 Mrs. Allen, Gartrell, and two or three other 
 people chanced to meet at one of her informal 
 afternoon receptions, or "teas," as she called 
 them after the English fashion she supposed 
 Farther Darcy disapproved of social amusement 
 in any form, as Stella had quite dropped out of 
 the world since she put herself under his " direc- 
 tion " as (pronouncing the last word with empha- 
 sis), she believed it was called. 
 
 " Oh ! I am sure Father Darcy has nothing to 
 do with Stella's remaining at home," said Mrs. 
 Allen, who had brought this animadversion on her 
 young friend by scolding her for not going out 
 more. " She was too good a child to leave you 
 when you were so ill, and one could not expect it 
 of her. But now that you are almost well again, 
 and do not, I suppose, need her to read to you at 
 night, she ought not to forget the rest of the 
 world entirely. I hope, my dear," she added, 
 turning to Stella, "that I shall see you at my 
 soire'e to-morrow night. We have missed you 
 very much all this long time that you have been 
 absent." 
 
 "I will come, thanks, with pleasure," said 
 Stella pleasantly. She felt inclined to laugh at 
 the discomfiture visible in her mother's counte- 
 nance at having had the tables completely turned 
 15
 
 226 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 upon her ; for Mrs. Allen's friendly reproaches in 
 the first place had beeh directed much more 
 against Mrs. Gordon than herself, the selfishness 
 of that lady in keeping her daughter in such close 
 attendance on her being generally talked of and 
 condemned.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 "I FEEL as if it was selfish to leave you, 
 mamma," said Stella the next evening, entering 
 her mother's room after she was dressed for Mrs. 
 Allen's soiree. " I think I will write an apolo " 
 
 " Nonsense ! " interrupted Mrs. Gordon lan- 
 guidly. " There is no reason why you should not 
 go. The McDonalds and your father will be 
 here presently to play whist." 
 
 And in fact, as she spoke, Dr. McDonald and 
 his wife were ushered in, Mr. Gordon making his 
 appearance an instant later. 
 
 After salutations and inquiries had been ex- 
 changed the whist-table was wheeled to the side 
 of the invalid's sofa, seats were arranged, and the 
 rugged face of the doctor looked almost benign as 
 he shuffled the cards, and, casting for deal, had 
 the pleasure of finding that fortune favored him- 
 self. While his great brown hand flashed round 
 and round in a short circle, dealing with great 
 rapidity, his wife's eyes followed Stella, who, 
 having seen her mother's comfort and amusement 
 for the evening thus secured, was leaving the 
 room. 
 
 There was something of compassion as well as 
 admiration in Mrs. McDonald's kindly gaze ; and 
 
 (227)
 
 228 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Mr. Gordon, glancing up by accident, caught the 
 expression and involuntarily turned to see what 
 had caused it. 
 
 For the first time then he noticed that Stella, 
 as Gartrell had remarked, looked pale and as 
 Gartrell had not remarked a little thin ; and for 
 the first time it occurred to him with a sense of 
 self-reproach that her health had suffered from 
 her long and fatiguing attendance upon her 
 mother. 
 
 " I ought to have paid some attention to this," 
 he thought, and beginning to consider what he 
 could do to correct the evil, was so preoccupied 
 in mind during the first game that was played as 
 to excite the wonder and dissatisfaction of his 
 wife and the doctor ; perceiving which he put the 
 matter out of his thoughts for the time and 
 applied himself to his cards. 
 
 But he did not forget it, and a second examina- 
 tion of Stella's face at the breakfast-table the 
 next morning added to his concern. 
 
 " What are you looking at, papa ? " she said at 
 last with a half-laugh, observing that his eye 
 rested on her face again and again with an ex- 
 pression of grave scrutiny. "Is anything the 
 matter with my face or my dress ? " 
 
 She glanced down over her person while speak- 
 ing. 
 
 " Yes," answered her father, smiling lightly as 
 he saw her look of rather startled surprise at this
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 229 
 
 reply. " Your face is much paler than it ought to 
 be, and your dress is a little loose on you, I 
 observe. You have lost flesh." 
 
 " Is that all ? " she said lightly. " It is nothing 
 to look grave about." 
 
 " You have been too closely confined to the 
 house and have endured too much fatigue since 
 your mother's accident," Mr. Gordon went on. 
 " I am afraid your health has suffered." 
 
 "Not at all, I assure you, papa." 
 
 " You feel quite well? " 
 
 " Perfectly well." 
 
 " Yet it seems to me that, in addition to your 
 pallid looks, you move languidly. I noticed this 
 last night, and again when you came down-stairs 
 awhile ago." 
 
 " I have felt a little languid lately, since the 
 change of season. But I am not alone in that. 
 Everybody is feeling the enervating effect of the 
 spring temperature." 
 
 Mr. Gordon was silent for a few minutes, then 
 resumed : 
 
 " You need change of air, and rest," he said 
 decidedly. 
 
 "It is impossible that I can leave mamma," 
 Stella answered. " Please don't say anything 
 about it, papa. Indeed I am quite well." 
 
 " You may be so at present, but you will not 
 remain well if such an unaccustomed strain upon
 
 230 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 your strength continues much longer. I must find 
 some way of putting a stop to it." 
 
 " I beg that you will not say anything to mamma 
 on the subject ! " said Stella earnestly, looking 
 quite distressed. " Pray do not, papa ! " 
 
 " Since you request it, I will not," he answered. 
 " But I cannot permit such a state of affairs to go 
 on. Think of it and see if you can suggest a 
 remedy. Meanwhile I will talk to the doctor 
 about it." 
 
 The opportunity to do this occurred sooner than 
 he expected. He had scarcely entered the pri- 
 vate room of his law-office on going down-street 
 that morning, and had not settled himself to work, 
 but was still thinking of Stella's pale face and 
 languid eyes, when one of his clerks knocked at 
 the door and informed him that Dr. McDonald 
 wished to speak to him. 
 
 "I was just wishing to speak to you" he said, 
 as the doctor entered and shut the door. " Sit 
 down. Nothing is the matter, I hope ? " 
 
 " No, not exactly. Would it be very inconven- 
 ient to you to leave home for six months or a 
 year ? " 
 
 Mr. Gordon seemed as much surprised as it was 
 possible for a man so dignified and self-contained 
 to look. " It would be inconvenient, certainly," 
 he answered after a momentary pause, " but in a 
 case of necessity I could disregard that." 
 
 " I think it would be well, then., for you to take
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 231 
 
 Mrs. Gordon and Miss Stella to spend the ap- 
 proaching summer in Switzerland or the Bavarian 
 Highlands, and the winter in France or Italy." 
 
 " But is Mrs. Gordon in a condition to under- 
 take such a journey ? " his hearer asked doubt- 
 fully. " She has scarcely left her sofa yet, and 
 don't seem to be able to do much in the way of 
 walking, even across the room, with her crutch." 
 
 "There it is!" said the doctor. "She will 
 never learn to use her crutch and move about 
 enough to regain her strength unless she has a 
 motive for exertion is, in a manner, compelled to 
 exert herself. It won't do for her to remain in 
 this climate during the summer ; and I have been 
 trying for some time past to think where she had 
 better go. Now, there is nothing like an ocean 
 voyage to restore tone and vigor to an impaired 
 constitution. I thought of the Bermudas. But 
 it is easier to go to Europe than to get there ; 
 and, in fact, it would be better in every way 
 with the advantage, too, that it would do Miss 
 Stella as much good as her mother." 
 
 " Ah ! Stella," said Mr. Gordon quickly ; " I 
 was intending to consult you about her. I am 
 not very observant, or I should have noticed be- 
 fore last night how thin and pale she is looking. 
 Her strength has been overtasked." 
 
 " A little, perhaps, but not seriously. Still, it 
 would be well to give her relaxation in time; 
 and this plan I propose seems to me the best
 
 232 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 thing that could be done, if Mrs. Gordon will 
 consent to it." 
 
 u Have you spoken to her on the subject ? What 
 does she think of it ? " 
 
 " No ; I have not mentioned it to her yet. I 
 thought I would first speak to you." 
 
 "Ascertain what she thinks of it. I suppose 
 you will see her this morning ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am on my way now to your house." 
 
 " Very well. If she will go, settle with her 
 what time it is likely she may be able to travel, 
 and I will make my arrangements accordingly." 
 
 Though it was, as he had said, inconvenient to 
 him to leave home, Mr. Gordon, having made up 
 his mind to do so, was more and more pleased 
 with Dr. McDonald's suggestion the more he 
 thought of it. To have an ailing, fretful wife was 
 new and not at all agreeable to him, and the re- 
 establishment of her health was an object for 
 which he was glad to make any sacrifice. In ad- 
 dition to this he felt that Stella's health certainly 
 needed attention, and would, the doctor assured 
 him, be greatly benefited by the voyage ; and for 
 himself, he was not disinclined to a temporary 
 change from his usual laborious life. 
 
 Somewhat to his surprise he found, on going 
 home, that neither Mrs. Gordon nor Stella re- 
 garded the scheme favorably. The first was sub- 
 dued to reluctant acquiescence by the doctor's 
 strenuous, in fact peremptory, arguments ; and
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 233 
 
 Stella, in consequence to the medical dictum that 
 change not only of air but of continent was abso- 
 lutely necessary to the recovery of her mother's 
 health, refrained from the expression of her opin- 
 ion. But the feelings of both were exceedingly 
 opposed to the idea of going to Europe, and, 
 strange to say, for the same reason an apprehen- 
 sion, in the first place, of meeting Southgate, and, 
 in the second place, of being suspected of going 
 there to meet him. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon was silent as to this reason and its 
 corollary despair of ever obtaining Gartrell as a 
 son-in-law ; but when Mr. Gordon requested 
 Stella to tell him why she seemed so averse to the 
 plan proposed by Dr. McDonald she replied frankly 
 and truthfully. 
 
 " I scarcely think Mr. Southgate himself would 
 think anything of the kind ; he is not a vain man," 
 she added, seeing by the expression of her father's 
 face that he considered this objection reasonless. 
 "But I am sure the gossips here will make ill-na- 
 tured remarks ; and I am coward enough, I con- 
 fess, to shrink from giving them the opportun- 
 ity." 
 
 " But I suppose you would not think it well to 
 sacrifice the restoration of your mother's health 
 to this fear of gossip ? " said Mr. Gordon. 
 
 " No, certainly not, papa. You know I have 
 not said a word voluntarily on the subject. You 
 asked the point-blank question why I did not like
 
 234 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 the idea of going, and I could only tell the 
 truth." 
 
 " Is this your only objection ? " 
 
 " Yes. Otherwise I should be delighted at the 
 prospect." 
 
 " You may set your mind at rest, then, about 
 the gossip you are afraid of. Southgate will not 
 be in Europe when we get there or while we are 
 there. He has already gone to Jerusalem to spend 
 Lent, and intends remaining in the East two or 
 three years." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Stella in a tone of evident relief. 
 " I am glad of that, if you are sure that it is so." 
 
 " There can be no doubt of it. I met Brant- 
 ford Townsley this morning with a letter in his 
 hand which he had just received from Southgate, 
 who was starting for Jerusalem the day he wrote." 
 
 "I am very glad," said Stella again. "And 
 when shall we start, papa? " 
 
 Her face was quite bright now. 
 
 " As soon as your mother is able to travel. The 
 doctor thinks she will be well enough in six 
 weeks to undertake the voyage. That will bring 
 us to the first of May a very good season for 
 crossing the ocean."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DR. McDoNALD was mistaken in thinking that 
 he could either convince or persuade Mrs. Gordon 
 to believe herself well enough to travel by the first 
 of May. The summer solstice was fast approach- 
 ing before the weary task of combating her objec- 
 tions and satisfying her requirements in the way 
 of preparation was accomplished and the voyage 
 begun ; and the last sun of June was blazing in 
 the heavens as Stella sat one afternoon on the 
 deck of the steamer that for nearly a fortnight 
 had been terra firma to her and many others, and, 
 with sensations too mingled and too strong for ut- 
 terance, looked over the limitless expanse of glit- 
 tering blue water around. Far away on the scarce 
 discernible verge of the horizon, where sea and 
 sky melted together, lay a faint, very faint white 
 line, to the eye hardly more than a point. This, 
 she was told, was the Irish coast. 
 
 Her father and several of their fellow passen- 
 gers had just left the deck, after welcoming with 
 rejoicing the first sight of land ; but she remained, 
 and was glad to be alone. She was so young that 
 history, in the pages of which she had so lately 
 been living, was, with all its actors and tragedies, 
 as vividly familiar and real to her as the events of 
 
 (235)
 
 236 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 yesterday are to older people people to whom 
 years and the memories of their own lives have 
 dimmed the enthusiasms of youth, and even the 
 very recollection of the lives that went before 
 them. What a host of shadows gathered about 
 her, as, leaning back in her deck-chair, her gaze 
 fastened itself on that little, vapor-like speck 
 which was imperceptibly enlarging and growing 
 more distinct while she gazed ! She could not 
 have put into words words that would not have 
 seemed tame and altogether unworthy their theme 
 one of the thoughts that were crowding on her. 
 Only the inspiration of the poet can analyze and 
 clothe in language emotions which less gifted souls 
 feel it might almost be said suffer but cannot 
 express. Stella sat dumb and motionless. The 
 grand Old World of story and of song was here, 
 in her very sight. All its mighty past lay spread 
 out, as it were, like a map before her imagination. 
 
 She was startled suddenly by a voice at her 
 side. 
 
 " Dinner is ready," said her father, offering his 
 arm to take her in. 
 
 "I do not care for dinner, papa," she answered. 
 "I would rather stay here, if you will tell the 
 steward to send me a sandwich and glass of 
 wine." 
 
 "Come to the table," insisted Mr. Gordon. 
 " The Isle of Saints will not vanish while you are 
 away," he added, with a smile. " On the con-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 237 
 
 trary, we shall be an hour nearer to it when you 
 return, and you will be able to see it more clearly 
 than you do now." 
 
 " I hate to lose one moment of such an evening 
 and such a view as this," she said, but rose from 
 her seat while speaking. " I do believe you are 
 a devout Catholic at heart, papa," she continued, 
 as they turned to leave the deck, " though you 
 don't seem so." 
 
 " At heart I am certainly a Catholic," he an- 
 swered seriously. " It is only in practice that I 
 am not one." 
 
 "And is that right?" asked Stella gently. 
 " I have often been tempted to speak to you on 
 the subject, papa, but hesitated, I scarcely know 
 why. But the first sightof Ireland ought to inspire 
 one not only with devotion but with courage to 
 do anything for God. You have always confessed 
 your faith ; why don't }^ou practise it, dear papa? " 
 Perhaps Mr. Gordon was not sorry to be spared 
 the necessity of answering this question. They 
 entered the saloon at the moment, and nothing 
 more was said on the subject. When they rose 
 from the table he conducted Stella back to her 
 seat on deck, and then returned to the saloon for 
 dutiful attendance on his wife and her whist- 
 table. 
 
 The Isle of Saints had, in nautical phrase, risen 
 a little out of the water when Stella's eyes turned 
 to it again after her absence of an hour from the
 
 238 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 deck. A good many people besides herself were 
 now gathered there, watching the land they were 
 approaching, as it became more and more distinct 
 to view in the glorified atmosphere which the 
 sun's parting rays were pouring over it. 
 
 The scene was very beautiful. The coast lay 
 like a flake of dull gold on the burnished surface 
 of sun-gilded water, outlined faintly against a pale 
 pink sky that was misty from distance, but trans- 
 parently clear in tint. There was not a cloud in 
 the heavens, not the thinnest vapor, to catch and 
 refract the rays of light that were beginning to 
 bathe the whole sea-line in sunset effulgence 
 only the land itself. That changed momently as 
 the level beams of the sun touched it, wrapping it 
 in a haze of dazzling light, which deepened rapidly 
 to burning gold, and from gold to orange-rose, 
 and from rose to crimson. 
 
 Then the colors commenced fading, dying down 
 from shade to shade. Dull-red, purple, violet, 
 soft, dark, sombre blue, followed each other in 
 swift succession as the sunset radiance retreated 
 from the eastern horizon and came creeping 
 across the water toward the ship, the shades of 
 evening falling like a veil behind it. 
 
 Stella scarcely heard the exclamations of ad- 
 miration and pleasure from those around her. 
 She was thinking of Southgate, of what he would 
 feel if he was by her side looking for the first time 
 at the shore that was now dissappearing in the
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 239 
 
 twilight. He was not much inclined to enthu- 
 siasm ordinarily, but his eye always lighted and his 
 words and tones warmed when he spoke of Ire- 
 land. To be so near it reminded her of all that 
 they had intended to do and see there together. 
 
 " We must land at Queenstown," he had more 
 than once said when they were discussing the de- 
 tails of their intended visit to Europe. " I should 
 feel it impossible to pass Ireland without pausing 
 to touch this soil which has been made sacred by 
 the blood and tears of so many generations of 
 saints and martyrs. We will hear one Mass in 
 Cork or Dublin, and go on then to Rome. But 
 as we return we must stay some time and make a 
 great many pilgrimages." 
 
 Stella smiled sadly to herself as she remem- 
 bered how little interest she had felt at the time 
 in the idea of the pilgrimages, and how much 
 more she was thinking of seeing London and Paris 
 than of hearing Mass anywhere 1 Now she would 
 have been very glad to land in Qeenstown and 
 stay in Ireland a few days. She had even pro- 
 prosed it to her father, who was not unwilling to 
 gratify her wish, had not Mrs. Gordon objected to 
 the delay and preferred to land in Liverpool and 
 proceed at once to London. 
 
 The weather was unusually fine, and, as Mrs. 
 Gordon found herself much fatigued by her voy- 
 age, they decided to remain awhile in England in- 
 stead of going on at once to the Continent accord-
 
 240 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 ing to their original intention. A few days after 
 their arrival, therefore, they were established in 
 lodgings in that pleasantest part of suburban Lon- 
 don, Kensington.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " WHAT can be the matter that your father does 
 not return ? " exclaimed Mrs. Gordon anxiously 
 the day after that on which they were settled in 
 their lodgings. The dinner-hour was striking, 
 and Mr. Gordon, who had gone out immediately 
 after breakfast to see his banker, had not yet ap- 
 peared. 
 
 " I don't suppose anything serious is the matter," 
 said Stella, speaking more cheerfully than she felt, 
 in order to reassure her mother, who was evi- 
 dently becoming very impatient and not a little 
 uneasy. " He may have lost his way in this great 
 London town, or " 
 
 At this moment a welcome ring of the door-bell 
 sounded, and she paused to see if it was her 
 father. Yes, that was his step on the stair, she 
 was sure ; and when the door opened she looked 
 up with a smile and a jesting reproof on her lips. 
 
 She did not utter the last. Mr. Gordon came in 
 hastily, looking > grave and a little nervous, it 
 seemed to her. 
 
 "I hope I have not kept dinner waiting or 
 made you uneasy, Margaret," he said, glancing 
 anxiously at his wife. " I was detained unavoid- 
 16 (241)
 
 242 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 ably by business. I will be ready in a moment, 
 however." 
 
 He passed into an adjoining apartment. 
 
 " How worried he looks ! " observed his wife. 
 " I can't imagine what business there is that could 
 disturb him so." 
 
 " I suppose he was afraid you would be nervous 
 and alarmed by his absence," said Stella. 
 
 " Yes, very likely. I was beginning to feel 
 quite anxious. I wish I had your nerves." 
 
 She would not have wished so if she had known 
 what a state Stella's nerves were in at that mo- 
 ment, quiet as she appeared. " Something is the 
 matter," she was thinking, " and something very 
 serious, I am sure. I never in my life saw papa 
 look so strangely excited." 
 
 Her apprehensions were somewhat dissipated 
 when Mr. Gordon reappeared after arranging his 
 toilet for dinner. He bestowed his usual care in 
 making his wife comfortable, and listened with his 
 usual patience to her report of her symptoms dur- 
 ing the morning. But, that subject exhausted, a 
 preoccupied expression stole over his face ; and 
 Stella observed that although he accounted for his 
 unusual silence and gravity by saying that he was 
 very tired, he ate little. In his whole air and 
 manner there was a certain quietude too marked 
 to be quite natural. 
 
 She was alarmed. " Something dreadful has 
 happened ! " she thought again, while her mother
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 243 
 
 was asking innumerable questions relevant to 
 nothing in particular. " Papa must have received 
 letters at the bank. Oh ! I wish dinner was over ; 
 he is dreadfully worried about something. Per- 
 haps he is called home by business, and will have 
 to leave us." 
 
 This idea took entire possession of her mind, 
 and all the while they sat at table, and during the 
 two hours which followed, she was tormenting 
 herself with anticipations of how wretched she 
 should be if her fears were verified and she had 
 to see her father return home alone. The fact 
 that he said nothing before her mother made her 
 more uneasy than she would otherwise have been 
 even, and more impatient to know the trouble, 
 whatever that trouble might prove to be. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon, who still kept invalid hours, 
 finally rose to retire, and her husband gave her 
 his arm to assist her to her chamber. 
 
 " Is anything the matter, papa ? " Stella asked 
 the moment he entered the room on his return. 
 " Did you get any letters from home ? " 
 
 " None," he answered. " It is too soon to ex- 
 pect letters from home. But yes, something is 
 the matter. I heard some very bad news this 
 morning." 
 
 " I knew it ! I felt sure of it ! " she exclaimed. 
 " You received a telegram, I suppose ? What 
 
 "I heard nothing from home," he interrupted. 
 " This news is about Southgate."
 
 244 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " He is married ! " she thought, with a sharp 
 pang. But womanly pride gave her self-posses- 
 sion. " Ah ! " she forced herself to say steadily. 
 " What did you hear about him ? " 
 
 Her look of inquiry was so composed, if not in- 
 different, that her father answered at once briefly : 
 " He is dead." 
 
 There was a long pause. Mr. Gordon was inex- 
 pressibly shocked as well as astonished at the 
 effect his words produced. Stella's face grew as 
 white as marble, her form seemed to stiffen as she 
 sat, and her eyes had a wild, glazed expression 
 that alarmed him. 
 
 He uttered an exclamation of dismay. " I have 
 been too abrupt ! " he said. " But I thought from 
 your manner that you were indifferent to him." 
 
 Her lips quivered; there was a convulsive move- 
 ment in her throat, as if she was trying to speak. 
 But the effort was abortive. She was aware of a 
 strange, double consciousness a burning pain 
 tearing her heart, with, at the same time, an apa- 
 thetic recognition of her position and surrounding 
 circumstances. 
 
 "I thought so, too," she managed at last to 
 articulate in reply to her father's exclamation. 
 " But you see we were both mistaken." 
 
 After another silence she cried suddenly : " You 
 mean it, papa? you really mean that he is 
 dead? " 
 
 " Yes ; he is dead."
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 246 
 
 "How do you know it? How did you hear 
 it?" 
 
 " I have seen his body," was the reply. 
 
 She asked no more questions at the moment, 
 but sat staring vacantly before her, trying to 
 realize, trying to make herself believe, what she 
 had been told. 
 
 Southgate dead ! It was the first time that the 
 idea of his dying had ever entered her mind. 
 She had thought of his marriage, had prepared 
 herself to hear of this, and, had she heard of it, 
 would have accepted the inevitable with becom- 
 ing resignation. Not without a pang, certainly ; 
 but that pang would have been the death -throe of 
 her love. 
 
 To see the extinction of his life was another 
 thing a life that she believed to be so full of 
 promise. A mingled sense of amaze, of vehement 
 protest, of intolerable regret assailed her. Al- 
 most forgetting herself in generous pity for him, 
 she felt like crying out against the cruelty of 
 Heaven. 
 
 The entrance of a servant, who came into the 
 room on some trifling errand, roused her from her 
 vain questioning of Omnipotent wisdom, and, 
 glancing at her father, the expression of his face 
 further recalled her to a consciousness of the 
 necessity of self-control. 
 
 " I am very, very sorry papa, to hear this sad 
 news," she said quietly when the man left the
 
 246 STELLA'S 
 
 room. " I was awfully shocked at first, for " 
 her voice faltered slightly " I did care a great 
 deal for him. But you know I have no right to 
 care now. You need not be afraid of my making 
 myself seriously unhappy. But I am so, so sorry ! 
 How sad it is for any one to die so young ! How 
 did you hear it ? " 
 
 Mr. Gordon s face cleared when he perceived 
 that she intended to take the matter in this sen- 
 sible way, as he considered it, and he proceeded 
 to explain how by a mere accident, as it seemed, 
 the fact came to his knowledge. He had gone to 
 the banking-house to which he brought letters, to 
 have a check cashed, and, wishing to make his 
 financial arrangements for the period during 
 which he would be on the Continent, requested 
 speech with one of the heads of the house. The 
 banker was engaged just then, he was informed, 
 but would probably be at leisure to see him in 
 half an hour, or less time, if he could wait. In 
 much less time than that specified, at the distant 
 tinkle of a bell, the clerk to whom he had given 
 his card rose quickly and, requesting him to 
 follow, led the way down a long corridor to a 
 door, unclosed it, motioned him to enter, and 
 retired. 
 
 As he was about to cross the threshold he was 
 met by a man coming out, whose face struck him 
 at a passing glance as singularly pale and haggard 
 so much so that it remained a picture in his
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 247 
 
 mind all the while he was transacting his busi- 
 ness. 
 
 " May I ask, Mr. Gordon, if you were ac- 
 quainted with a countryman of your own, a Mr. 
 
 Southgate?" inquired Mr. L , the banker, 
 
 when he rose to leave. 
 
 "I am intimately acquainted with a Mr. Ed- 
 ward Southgate, who was in London about the 
 first of this year, if he is the man you speak of," 
 was the reply. " He went from here to Italy, and 
 thence to Jerusalem, I believe." 
 
 " The same, the same man," said the banker. 
 " He intended to spend two years in Eastern 
 travel he told me, perhaps longer. Unfortunately 
 for him, as it turned out, he changed his mind, 
 was returning to England, it seems, and last night 
 he lost his life, I understand, by the sinking of 
 the steamer he was on." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " exclaimed Mr. Gordon. " Is 
 it possible ? This is most deplorable intelligence 
 to me ! How did you obtain your information, 
 
 Mr. L , may I inquire ? Is it to be relied 
 
 on?" 
 
 " There can be no mistake as to the fact, I re- 
 gret to say," answered the other. " My informant 
 was a fellow-passenger of Mr. Southgate's the 
 man you met as you came in a few minutes ago. 
 He is a gentleman well known to me, and barely 
 escaped with his own life was picked up by a 
 boat while struggling in the water."
 
 248 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " And he told you that Southgate was on board 
 the vessel with him, and was lost ? " 
 
 " He saw his body among a number of others 
 that came on shore with the tide this morning." 
 
 " Can I follow and speak to him ? " asked Mr. 
 Gordon hastily. " I should like to learn all the 
 particulars of the accident and take charge of the 
 body." 
 
 Mr. L shook his head. " He has left town 
 
 by this time, having merely called here on his way 
 to take the 12.30 train at the Northwestern 
 terminus. He is off before now. But I can give 
 you the particulars of the accident in a general 
 way, which he told me, and direct you to the 
 place where the bodies will no doubt be kept 
 during the day for identification by friends. 
 Pray sit down again." 
 
 Mr. Gordon did so, and learned that one 
 steamer had run into another the night before on the 
 river a little below Greenwich, and that the smaller 
 vessel, a passenger-boat bound from some Medi- 
 terranean porttoLondon, was struck amidships and 
 sank almost immediately. Most of the passengers 
 being in their berths at the time of the collision, 
 the loss of life was very great. Some few were 
 picked up by the boats of the larger vessel, but 
 the greater number perished. A good many 
 bodies had already been washed ashore by the tide 
 that came in at daylight, and were deposited in a 
 boat-house on the spot.
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 249 
 
 This was the substance of what Mr. Gordon 
 
 heard, Mr. L adding that his informant had 
 
 mentioned Southgate's name incidentally among 
 that of others, but seemed to have had a very 
 slight acquaintance with him, only knowing that 
 he was an American, that he had lately been in 
 Syria, and was evidently but just recovering from 
 what must from his appearance have been a very 
 serious illness. 
 
 Taking leave of the banker with many thanks 
 for the information he had received, distressing as 
 it was to him, Mr. Gordon proceeded at once to the 
 place to which he had been directed, some distance 
 below Greenwich. 
 
 It was a feeling akin to physical pain that he 
 shrank, as he drew near to his destination, from 
 the thought of seeing Southgate's lifeless body, 
 if Southgate's body it proved to be. He felt that 
 ocular demonstration could destroy his hope to the 
 contrary. 
 
 A crowd surrounded the boat-house; many 
 people were entering and leaving momently. 
 Some of them, it was evident, came on the same 
 sad errand as himself, with even a closer interest ; 
 for he heard more than one burst of heartrending 
 grief as he paused an instant outside the door to 
 brace his resolution before going in. Others were 
 impelled by that strange morbid curiosity, so com- 
 mon to human nature, which makes suffering and 
 death an entertaining spectacle.
 
 250 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 To these last the scene in the boat-house was no 
 doubt weirdly attractive ; to Mr. Gordon it was 
 horrible. He gave but one glance at the row of 
 cold effigies of humanity that lay waiting recog- 
 nition or unknown burial, and, seeing none which 
 he thought could by any possibility be that he was 
 seeking turned away and addressed one of the 
 men wearing the badge of the London police who 
 were in official attendance. Taking out his 
 pocket-book with the air of a man who expects to 
 pay for what he gets, he did get civil answers to 
 his questions, but no information that was at all 
 satisfactory. The policeman, who belonged to the 
 reserve force kept for special service, had been on 
 duty but half an hour, he said, and knew nothing 
 whatever about the accident or its victims. He 
 suggested, however, as he condescended to accept 
 the coin extended by Mr. Gordon, that any of the 
 boatmen loitering outside could tell the gentleman 
 all that there was to tell about it. 
 
 When Mr. Gordon, glad to escape from prox- 
 imity to the ghastly company within, hurried out 
 into the sunshine and looked about for one Jim 
 Dodson, who was recommended by the policeman 
 as the " best party to apply to," he fortunately 
 found that individual at his service, ready to " tell 
 what he knowed," if the gentleman would make 
 it worth his while. 
 
 The gentleman made it so well worth his while 
 that he was inclined to tell not only all he knew,
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 2ol 
 
 but more besides, the former suspected. Sifting 
 as well as he could, by a rigid cross-examination, 
 the truth from its embellishments, Mr. Gordon 
 possessed himself of what seemed to him a few 
 probable facts. Among the bodies that had come 
 ashore with the tide there was one, Mr. Dodson 
 stated, which an officer and a passenger of the lost 
 vessel had recognized as that of an American gen- 
 tleman, they said a young man with dark hair, 
 tall, looking as if he had consumption. " Came 
 ashore in his trousers and shirt, no coat nor " 
 
 Mr. Gordon here interposed. There was no body 
 answering the description in the boat-house, he 
 suggested. 
 
 " Not now," the boatman replied, " 'cause it was 
 took away about a hour ago." 
 
 " Taken away ! " repeated Mr. Gordon in sur- 
 prise. " Who took it ? " 
 
 That Mr. Dodson was not prepared to say. In 
 fact, he did not know. Undertaker people. But 
 of course there was somebody behind them. All 
 he knowed was that the officer of the ship he 
 spoke about before had came down with the un- 
 dertaker's men, and the undertaker's men had car- 
 ried off two bodies the gentleman they was 
 speaking of and another young gentleman. That 
 was all he knowed. 
 
 " And where is the officer of the ship ? " Mr. 
 Gordon inquired. " You say he came down ; from 
 where ? "
 
 252 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE, 
 
 "From the iun up yonder," answered the boat- 
 man. 
 
 Up to the inn, some few hundred yards distant, 
 Mr. Gordon went in haste ; and after a few min- 
 utes conversation with the man he sought, who 
 proved to be the second officer of the unfortunate 
 vessel, he returned to London and spent some 
 time in searching through the advertising columns 
 of the Times and other papers for the address of 
 an undertaker to whom he had been referred by 
 the officer for certain information which the latter 
 himself was unable to give. Succeeding at last 
 in his quest, he saw the undertaker, and from him 
 obtained the address of a gentleman, to whom he 
 at once went.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ALL these journeyings to and fro occupied so 
 much time as to make him late for dinner. He 
 described his adventures to Stella in few words 
 until he came to the latter part of his narrative, 
 when he spoke more at length. 
 
 "I was astonished to hear that the body had 
 been removed," he said, " and began to indulge a 
 hope that, after all, the drowned man might not 
 be our friend, but somebody else of the same 
 name. The possibility it even seemed to me a 
 probability of this being the case increased my 
 anxiety to find out by whom the body had been 
 taken, and to what place. 
 
 " To my disappointment, the officer to whom I 
 applied as soon as I learned his whereabouts could 
 give me little available information. He remem- 
 bered that one of the passengers was a Mr. South- 
 gate, an American, who seemed in ill health ; rec- 
 ollected to have heard Mr. Southgate remark that 
 he was still suffering from the effects of an attack 
 of fever which he had in Syria, and had noticed 
 that he appeared to be much affected by the heat, 
 which was intense during the whole passage. 
 
 " The vessel touched at Gibraltar, and two 
 young Englishmen, one of whom was accompan- 
 
 (253)
 
 264 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 led by his wife, embarked there, he said. Mr. 
 Southgate and the younger of these two gentle- 
 men seemed to take a fancy to each other at once. 
 They were together a great deal, and were in the 
 habit of walking the deck together at night. If 
 it had not been that the bodies came on shore only 
 half dressed he should have thought they must 
 have been on deck when the collision occurred, 
 late as it was after midnight. Southgate's right 
 hand was grasping the Englishman's shoulder, 
 while the Englishman's right hand was clasped 
 around Southgate's left arm just above the wrist. 
 The elder Mr. Willoughby Willoughby was the 
 name of the Englishman was saved, and so was 
 his wife. In claiming his brother's body he re- 
 quested permission to take Southgate's also, say- 
 ing something which the officer did not under- 
 stand, about Southgate's having lost his own life 
 in trying to save that of his friend. Mr. Wil- 
 loughby also said that he was a Catholic, and 
 knew Southgate to have been one, and that he 
 would take on himself the burial of the body. 
 
 " The officer thinking that as Southgate was a 
 foreigner, and of course a stranger, it was not 
 likely any one else would claim the body, very 
 readily consented to its being given up to Mr. 
 Willoughby. He went down to the boat-house 
 and so instructed the men in charge. When I 
 spoke to him shortly afterwards he was afraid, I 
 could see, that he had done wrong. I soon reas-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 255 
 
 sured him, telling him that he had acted with 
 good judgment in the matter, and that all I asked 
 was Mr. Willoughby's address. He could not 
 give me this, or any clue by which to find it ; and 
 I had just decided that I should have to advertise 
 in the evening and morning papers when a boat- 
 man to whom I had been talking came to my as- 
 sistance, giving me the name of the undertaker 
 who had removed the bodies. I looked up the 
 man's advertisement, in that way found him, and 
 learned that Mr. Willoughby was at his house in 
 town to-day, the bodies having been temporarily 
 carried there also. 
 
 " I went to the house at once. The blinds were 
 down, and the porter assured me that his master 
 could see no one, being in great distress at the 
 death of his brother. I had some difficulty in get- 
 ting the man to take my card, on which I had 
 written a line explaining my business. He did 
 take or send it in at last, however ; and Mr. Wil- 
 loughby received me immediately in the most 
 courteous, indeed cordial, manner. He had taken 
 the liberty, he said, of charging himself with the 
 care and burial of Mr. Southgate's body, feeling 
 that, short as their acquaintance had been, grati- 
 tude gave him a claim to render every respect and 
 consideration in his power to the memory of a 
 man who had saved his life and that of his wife, 
 and had perished while endeavoring to render the 
 same service to his brother. He could not deny
 
 256 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 my right as a countryman and friend of Mr. 
 Southgate to have a voice as to the disposal of 
 the body ; but he earnestly hoped that I would 
 consent to its temporary burial, at least, with that 
 of his brother. If Mr. Southgate's family wished 
 its removal hereafter, very well ; he could make 
 no objection. But now 
 
 " I interposed here and assured him that I not 
 only consented willingly to his kind proposal, but 
 thanked him heartily for it and could desire noth- 
 ing better ; and that I would only ask further to 
 see the body, in order to be certain it was really 
 that of my friend. I still entertained a faint hope 
 to the contrary. 
 
 " He led the way at once from the room in 
 which he had received me to a drawing-room up- 
 stairs where the two bodies lay." 
 
 Mr. Gordon's voice sank a little as he uttered 
 the last words, and there was a moment's silence, 
 which was measured to Stella by the heavy, sick- 
 ening throbs of her heart. She would have pre- 
 ferred to hear no more. Almost she felt as if she 
 could not listen to another word. But what mat- 
 ter a few pangs more or less ? she thought. The 
 cup of bitterness was at her lips ; she might as 
 well drink every drop. 
 
 " I should scarcely have recognized the face if 
 I had seen it accidentally without knowing whose 
 it was," Mr. Gordon went on in a tone of much 
 feeling, " though I am sure I should have ,been
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 267 
 
 struck by its resemblance to Southgate. The 
 forehead, hair, and brows look quite natural, ex- 
 cept that the temples are very sunken. But the 
 features are perfectly emaciated, and have the 
 sharpness and lividness which death almost in- 
 variably gives, particularly after a long illness. 
 Added to this, the face is clean shaven. As he 
 always wore a beard and moustache, this gives it 
 a very unfamiliar appearance. The first glance 
 convinced me that it was Southgate, and yet I 
 found it difficult to realize that it was he who lay 
 before me. 
 
 ** I stayed but a moment ; for, painful as the 
 interview was to myself, it was evidently even 
 more so to Mr. Willoughby. He is a great, 
 broad-chested, broad -cheeked Englishman, with a 
 face that looks as if it was made only to laugh ; 
 but there were tears in his eyes, and I saw that he 
 could not control his voice as he put his hand on 
 his brother's hair and looked from one of the dead 
 faces to the other." 
 
 Stella said nothing, and it was an inexpressible 
 relief to her when her father took out his watch 
 and began to wind it up. She knew that this was 
 his preliminary to saying good-night. 
 
 Before the watch was closed and returned to its 
 place the door-bell rang. 
 
 " Strange, at this hour," said Mr. Gordon, and 
 looked inquiringly at the servant who appeared a 
 moment after having answered the bell. 
 17
 
 258 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 "A person at the door wishes to speak to you, 
 sir," the man said. 
 
 " Let him come up," was the reply. 
 
 The person declined to do so. He wanted to 
 speak to the gentleman alone. 
 
 " Take him into the dining-room, then. I will 
 see him there," Mr. Gordon said, and followed the 
 man as the latter left the room. 
 
 He was not gone long. There was a short si- 
 lence in the house, then movements down-stairs, 
 the shutting of the house door, and Mr. Gordon 
 reappeared. 
 
 He had something in his hand, Stella perceived, 
 as he advanced to a table on which was a light, 
 and instinctively she joined him. A cold chill ran 
 through her veins as she saw what it was that he 
 held a Russia-leather pocket book, damp and dis- 
 colored. Before he spoke she knew what he was 
 going to tell her. 
 
 "A boatman to whom I was talking to-day 
 brought it to me," he said. " No doubt it was 
 taken from the body and the money it contained 
 abstracted, though the fellow, of course, tells a 
 different story." 
 
 He opened it slowly, with the reluctance a man 
 feels in addressing himself to a task which he 
 knows will be a painful one. 
 
 The outside was still damp ; the inside was 
 wringing wet. There was no money, nothing of 
 any value ; simply a number of memoranda
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 259 
 
 leaves and a few letters, all so thoroughly soaked 
 with salt water as to be mere paper pulp with 
 blotty discolorations over the surface, and so 
 pasted together as to defy any effort to take the 
 leaves apart or open the letters without break- 
 ing them to pieces. If he had not suspected the 
 fact already Mr. Gordon would have been satis- 
 fied, from the disordered and soiled condition of 
 the contents, that the book had been ransacked be- 
 fore it came into his hands. One of the letters 
 had obviously been dropped into the mud and 
 washed off, losing part of its edges in the process. 
 In fact, all of the papers were more wet than 
 would have been possible had the pocket-book re- 
 mained unopened. 
 
 After examining the whole very carefully Mr. 
 Gordon shook his head in disappointment. 
 
 " There is nothing by which to judge whether it 
 even belonged to Southgate," he said. " The boat- 
 man's story is that it fell from his pocket as his 
 body was lifted out of the shallow tide-water 
 where it lodged " 
 
 " I think," interrupted Stella desperately, feel- 
 ing that to hear such details dwelt on was be- 
 yond her powers of endurance " I think, papa, 
 you did not examine the innermost pocket. There 
 may be something in that." 
 
 Mr. Gordon opened the book again and saw 
 that he had not noticed the pocket she alluded to. 
 He unfolded the extreme end and exposed to view
 
 260 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 two flaps, lifting which he discovered a small 
 pocket. 
 
 " Yes, here is a letter or note," he said, " and it 
 has been so well protected by the leather that it is 
 scarcely damp, which shows I was right in believ- 
 ing that the other papers have been tampered 
 with. Here are some finger-marks on it, but it 
 has no address," he added, turning it over. 
 
 It had an enclosure, however, he found a carte- 
 de-visite photograph. He took it out of the envel- 
 ope, and when he saw what it was would have 
 been very glad if he could have concealed it from 
 Stella. But she had recognized it at a glance, he 
 knew by her quick movement and gasping breath. 
 It was her own likeness.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 AT breakfast the next morning Mr. Gordon was 
 very glad to see Stella in her accustomed place 
 behind the urn. Except that she looked grave 
 and pale, her manner was quite as usual. She 
 even smiled faintly in answer to his greeting ; but 
 after the morning salutations scarcely a word was 
 exchanged. Neither of the two was inclined to 
 talk, and neither felt under any constraint in re- 
 maining silent. Mrs. Gordon, since her illness, 
 always breakfasted in her own room. 
 
 " I told Mr. Willoughby that I would be with 
 him this morning," said Mr. Gordon when he had 
 finished breakfast, " but the visit will not detain 
 me long, probably. Of course I shall insist on 
 seeing to the funeral expenses. Willoughby in- 
 tended to defray them himself, the undertaker 
 told me ; but I cannot allow that, even temporar- 
 ily. It is totally unnecessary." 
 
 He rose and was leaving the room, but paused 
 suddenly as he reached the door, and said : 
 
 " I promised your mother to look up the D s 
 
 to-day. You can tell her why I am unable to " 
 
 " O papa ! " cried Stella impulsively, " if it is 
 necessary that she should be told, cannot you tell 
 her ? I could not endure to hear any harsh re- 
 
 (261)
 
 262 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 marks now. I am afraid I should lose all self-re- 
 straint and retort very bitterly. 
 
 " You do her injustice, if you think she would 
 be capable of saying anything harsh," answered 
 Mr. Gordon gravely. " But if you do not wish to 
 speak on the subject I had better do so. She will 
 see the account of the accident in the morning 
 papers, and wonder that it was not mentioned to 
 her. I will ling and inquire if I can see her be- 
 fore I go out." 
 
 "I know," said Stella, speaking rapidly and 
 passionately, " that I have no right to blame her, 
 having myself acted so badly. But I feel that we 
 are his murderers." 
 
 " It is worse than folly to entertain such an idea 
 as that ! " said Mr. Gordon a little sternly. 
 " What had either of you to do with his death ? " 
 
 " If he had not been forced in self-respect to 
 break with me everything would have been differ- 
 ent," she answered. " He would not have been 
 on that ship, papa. You cannot deny that." 
 
 " I do deny that you are in any degree account- 
 able for his having lost his life by an accident 
 with which you had no concern whatever," said 
 her father, crossing the room to ring the bell. 
 
 " Inquire of Mrs. Gordon's maid if her mistress 
 is awake and can see me," he said to the servant 
 who answered his summons. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon could not see him, the maid re- 
 turned. She had a headache and bad cold, and
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 263 
 
 had given orders that she was not to be disturbed. 
 
 " Thank heaven ! " said Stella involuntarily be- 
 neath her breath ; then, observing that her father 
 had heard the exclamation and looked both sur- 
 prised and displeased, she added quickly : " I did 
 not mean that I was glad mamma had a headache ! 
 No, indeed ! It is a great relief to me to be able 
 to be alone that is what I was thinking of. I 
 will go and pray in that church we saw the other 
 day, papa, and you shall find me in better disposi- 
 tions when you return. I promise you I will try 
 not to be wicked and impatient again." 
 
 She kept her word. During the few following 
 days she was very grave and silent, but scrupu- 
 lously attentive to her mother and not less com- 
 panionable than usual to her father. The latter 
 at first spoke of Southgate as they sat alone in the 
 evening after Mrs. Gordon retired. He repeated 
 Mr. Willoughby's account of the loss of the vessel, 
 and description of the saving of himself and his 
 wife by Southgate, who burst open the door of 
 their state-room, which was jammed so tightly by 
 the crushing of the side of the boat in the colli- 
 sion that it could not be moved from within. 
 Stella listened with interest to this recital, but 
 asked no questions ; and her father, seeing that 
 she shrank from the subject, discontinued allud- 
 ing to it. Only on the morning of the funeral he 
 said as she was pouring out his coffee : 
 
 "If you would like to go with me there is no
 
 264 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 reason why you should not. There is to be a 
 solemn Requiem High Mass, and a sermon by the 
 cardinal. Willoughby told me that his wife in- 
 tends to be present at the Mass, and that they 
 will be pleased for you to come out with me this 
 morning to the Manor and accompany her to the 
 chapel." 
 
 She shook her head. "No. I will pray during 
 the time in the church here," she answered. 
 " They are very kind ; you must thank them and 
 make my excuses. And say, please, that I sent 
 these flowers" she pointed to a side-table. "You 
 will remember, won't you, papa, that they are for 
 both the coffins?" 
 
 " Of course. I am very glad you thought of 
 it," said Mr. Gordon. 
 
 "I suppose," said Stella, "that it is a growing 
 custom in England for women to attend funerals, 
 particularly Catholic funerals, where there is Mass. 
 But I never liked the idea, even at home, where it 
 is universal." 
 
 Mrs. Gordon made no harsh remarks when she 
 heard of Southgate's death. Her husband, in 
 communicating the intelligence to her, requested 
 that she would not allude to the subject to or be- 
 fore Stella a superfluous precaution on his part ; 
 she was never inclined to dwell upon anything 
 either painful or disagreeable, and the recollection 
 of her own conduct in the matter of Stella's en-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 265 
 
 gageraent was both the one and the other, as read 
 now in the light of this tragic end of one of the 
 lives concerned. Stella's pale face and subdued 
 manner were an unceasing reminder that she had 
 inflicted great pain on her only child without 
 having accomplished her proposed object. She 
 was willing to let her blunder and the failure she 
 had made rest in silence, and even consented not 
 ungraciously to Mr. Gordon's proposal that they 
 should leave London at once. He hoped that 
 change of scene and unavoidable distractions of 
 travel might divert Stella's thought from dwell- 
 ing on the recollection of her former lover's 
 death. 
 
 "But the D s!" cried Mrs. Gordon sud- 
 denly. " We must wait for them, if they decide 
 to go with us; and I am almost sure they will. 
 They are to dine here to-morrow and let me know 
 certainly." 
 
 The D s were some friends, people from 
 
 their own State, with whom she wished to join 
 parties. 
 
 "Papa, "said Stella that same evening, "before 
 we leave London I should like to visit Edward's 
 grave. You told me, I think, that the Willough- 
 by's were to leave home to-day ? " 
 
 " Yes, to join Mr. Willoughby's mother." 
 
 " I wonder if strangers are permitted to drive 
 through the park to the chapel ? " 
 
 " I don't know about strangers in general, but
 
 266 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Willoughby's people would recognize me and 
 make no difficulty about my going. I can take 
 you there to morrow afternoon, if you like." 
 
 "I thought I might go alone," she said; adding 
 frankly, "I should prefer it." 
 
 " Go alone ! " repeated Mr. Gordon in surprise, 
 " Impossible ! You forget " 
 
 " I do not mean quite alone," she interposed 
 quickly. "I could take Charlotte with me. You 
 have no idea how useful I have found her. She 
 is very clever and capable, understands dealing 
 with these troublesome London cabmen, getting 
 railway-tickets, and everything of the kind. I 
 should not at all mind going, if I thought the 
 lodge-keeper at Willoughby Manor would let me 
 in. And if you do not object, papa." 
 
 " N o. I suppose there would be no impro- 
 priety in your going, if you take this girl with 
 you. But you need not pass through the park ; 
 you can go by the village, which is in sight of the 
 railway station, a mile nearer than the lodge. 
 The chapel is not far from the park-palings that 
 bound the village green. Several of the villagers 
 are Catholics, and for their convenience there is a 
 gate opening into the park. You cannot mistake 
 it, and a path leads from the gate to the chapel. 
 
 You will find the two graves under the very 
 wall of the church on the east side the side next 
 the open park toward the house. Standing at the
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 267 
 
 foot of them, the one at the right-hand side is 
 Southgate's." 
 
 Stella left London later than she had intended, 
 and the sun, though not near the horizon, was suf- 
 ficiently declined from the meridian to throw a 
 very golden light on the village-green as, attended 
 by her landlady's daughter (the girl of whom she 
 had spoken to her father), she crossed it on her 
 way to the gate which gave entrance to Wil- 
 loughby Manor Park. Some children playing on 
 the far side of the broad sweep of velvet sward 
 stared at the unusual apparition of two such fig- 
 ures passing there ; otherwise there were few 
 signs of life to be observed. The village seemed 
 sunk in the drowsy stillness of a summer after- 
 noon. 
 
 Tired as well as heated by her walk, short as it 
 was, from the station, Stella was glad to plunge 
 into the deep shade of a park, the coolness of 
 which was most refreshing. Not only the trees 
 but the undergrowth also remained very much as 
 nature had made them. But for the absence of 
 dead leaves and broken branches from the ground 
 she could almost have fancied herself in one of 
 her own native forests, so still and green and dark 
 was everything around as she followed the narrow, 
 winding path that was leading her apparently into 
 the depths of a dense wood, and did lead to a little 
 brook, at which she stopped. 
 
 She sat down on the roots of a rugged old
 
 268 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 beech-tree, and, taking the basket of flowers which 
 her companion carried, drew off one of her gloves, 
 and, dipping her hand in the water, sprinkled the 
 blossoms until they looked as fresh as if they had 
 just been gathered with the morning-dew upon 
 them. 
 
 "Sit down, Charlotte," she said then, rising and 
 lifting the basket from the ground, " and wait for 
 me here. I shall not be gone long." 
 
 Walking lightly over a rustic foot-bridge that 
 was thrown across the brook a little lower down 
 on its course, she soon disappeared from Char- 
 lotte's view along the path which wound through 
 the thick growth fringing the water-course. 
 
 After continuing its way through the copse a 
 short distance farther the path suddenly emerged 
 into an open space, in the centre of which stood 
 the chapel a small beautiful Gothic structure. 
 
 Stella paused with a thrill of indescribable 
 emotion. Here, then was Southgate's resting- 
 place. 
 
 "I am glad that he sleeps in such a lovely 
 spot!" she thought. "But oh! it is terrible to 
 conceive that he is down in the cold dark- 
 She shrank and hesitated, and half turned 
 away with the feeling that she could not bear 
 to go nearer. But the heavy basket of flowers 
 in her hands reminded her of the purpose for 
 which she came. She would not permit herself
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 269 
 
 to yield to the weakness that assailed her. "Let 
 me make this last offering to him, and be near 
 him once more for the very last time," she 
 thought sadly. 
 
 She moved forward, approaching the church 
 from the western side, which was all aglow with 
 the broad beams of the July sun shining from a 
 cloudless sky. Standing in this lonely spot, the 
 chapel could not be left open, and the Blessed 
 Sacrament could not, of course, be reserved. She 
 was, therefore, denied the consolation of prostrat- 
 ing herself before the altar ; but she knelt on the 
 steps of the front entrance, and prayed long and 
 fervently for the repose of the two souls that had 
 been snatched so suddenly from life and all the 
 joys of youth to the cold darkness of the tomb. 
 With her, as with the dead Mr. Willoughby's rel- 
 atives, there would always, she felt, be two souls to 
 be remembered together. 
 
 Her prayers ended, she lifted her basket once 
 more and walked slowly round to the east side of 
 the building. 
 
 It was all shadow here the deep shades cast by 
 the high walls and roof, which were outlined 
 sharply and in exaggerated length on the velvet 
 green, that stretched away in this direction, 
 smooth and level as a well-kept lawn, for a long 
 distance into the park. A few trees were scat- 
 tered about, one of which, a picturesque haw- 
 thorn, stood very close to the building and ex-
 
 270 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 tended its luxuriant branches protectingly, as it 
 were, over the two graves that lay between its 
 gnarled trunk and the church wall. 
 
 After having placed her offering upon the graves 
 Stella sat down on the grass beside the one which 
 her father said was Southgate's, and looked at it 
 with a strange regard. Could it be, she exclaimed 
 silently, that he was so near to her? So near, yet 
 gone for ever from all but her memory and her re- 
 gret ! But a few feet of earth divided them the 
 eye whose gaze she so well remembered, the hand 
 that had so often clasped her own ! Down there 
 in the cold darkness they were lying, sleeping the 
 unawaking sleep of mortality. This mound of 
 clay was all that remained on earth of the grace- 
 ful presence which she had thought would be be- 
 side her during all her life. 
 
 With her head drooped low and her ungloved 
 hand resting on the grave she sat for a long time 
 in silent meditation. How different her life might 
 have been, she reflected, if she had not lost South- 
 gate's heart by what seemed to her, in looking 
 back, the most incomprehensible folly ! Love of 
 pleasure and admiration, self-will, and a hasty, 
 uncontrolled temper these faults had appeared 
 slight and venial in her eyes at the time. Now 
 she saw them in another light : saw that trifling 
 defects of character and conduct are not trifling 
 in their sequences, but that each separate act is 
 one step either on the right road or the wrong
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 271 
 
 one, and that every fault, however apparently 
 small in itself, is a germ of evil which may de- 
 velop into sins of startling magnitude, or may di- 
 rectly or indirectly, lead to the most unexpected and 
 calamitous results. With no more serious inten- 
 tion of wrong-doing than that with which a spoiled 
 child misuses and breaks its toys, she had 
 flung away happiness the worth of which she did 
 not then know, but had since learned to appre- 
 ciate. And not happiness only. Despite what 
 her father had said to the contrary, she could not 
 feel that she was entirely guiltless, as regarded 
 Southgate's death. Morally guiltless, of course ; 
 but was it not incontestably true that if she had 
 acted differently circumstances would have fallen 
 out differently ? " Yet God knows best," she said 
 humbly. " He has been very merciful to me in 
 sending the discipline I needed ; and how dare I 
 think that his mercy has been less to one who was 
 so much more worthy of it ! " Still, to her human 
 sight, it seemed grevious that such a life should 
 have ended so prematurely. But could it have 
 ended more worthily? Self-forgetful to the last, 
 he had died in the performance of an act of char- 
 ity. Surely a soul so upright and self-sacrificing 
 would not be doomed to stay long in that abode 
 the pains of which are softened by the presence of 
 Hope, and may be shortened by the prayers of the 
 living. She had said many prayers already, but 
 at the thought of purgatory she rose from
 
 272 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 where she sat on the grass, and, kneeling, began 
 to repeat the De Profundis : Out of the depths I 
 have cried to thee, Lord ! Lord, hear " 
 
 Suddenly her voice ceased ; a magnetic con- 
 sciousness made her aware that she was not alone. 
 She lifted both hands, and, hastily throwing back 
 her veil, the folds of which had fallen far over her 
 face, looked up. 
 
 But a few feet from her, at the head of the 
 grave over which she was offering a prayer for the 
 repose of his soul, stood Edward Southgate. 
 
 She saw him, heard him utter her name, and 
 then consciousness left her. 
 
 Southgate for it was he in his natural body, 
 not, as Stella thought, a spiritual one was as 
 much shocked when he saw her fall back insen- 
 sible as he had been surprised the moment before 
 to recognize her face. He sprang to her assist- 
 ance, laid her down on the soft grass, and hastily 
 took off her hat. What to do next he did not 
 know. To leave her alone while he went more 
 than a mile to the lodge or manor-house for help 
 was not to be thought of. He had come by the 
 way of the lodge, and knew no other way of ap- 
 proach nor nearer place to seek assistance. He 
 looked at Stella's bloodless face and groaned. 
 What was he to do ? He lifted her hand and put 
 his finger on her pulse, and as he did so a lumin- 
 ous idea flashed upon him. She was in the habit,
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 273 
 
 he remembered, of carrying a vinaigrette in her 
 pocket. He proceeded to search for it. 
 
 With masculine awkwardness he sought vainly 
 for some time in the folds of her dress for the 
 pocket itself in the first place. When at last he 
 found it, and had succeeded in extracting the 
 smelling-bottle from its depths, he was in such 
 haste in applying the open mouth of the bottle to 
 her nostrils as almost to strangle her with the 
 powerful aromatic odor. It was with a gasping 
 cry of pain that she opened her eyes. 
 
 " You are better, thank Heaven ! " ejaculated 
 Southgate. 
 
 She did not answer, but gazed at him with a 
 look which astonished him. Incredulity, terror, 
 horror was what it seemed to express. He was 
 so struck by it that he did not attempt to raise 
 her from the ground, but remained motionless, re- 
 garding her almost as wonderfully as she was re- 
 garding him. 
 
 For an instant, or not much longer, they thus 
 stared at each other before Southgate exclaimed, 
 rising from the ground as he spoke : 
 
 " Why do you look at me so strangely, Stella ? 
 Surely you do not altogether hate me ! Since I 
 find you here at my brother's grave " 
 
 " Your brother's grave ! " cried Stella. " Then 
 then you are not " A great shuddering 
 sigh heaved her whole frame. "I thought it 
 was your grave," she said. 
 18
 
 274 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 " Mine ! " he repeated in surprise. " No ; it is 
 Eugene's ; Eugene's grave ! " 
 
 The last words were spoken as if more to him- 
 self than to her. His eyes fell and rested on the 
 mound of earth with an expression which made 
 Stella avert her face, while her own eyes filled 
 with tears. She felt as if her presence was an in- 
 trusion ; and, starting up so quickly that South- 
 gate's attention was not attracted until she had 
 gained her feet, she was moving away when his 
 voice arrested her. 
 
 " Stella ! " he said, taking a step toward her and 
 extending his hand. 
 
 " Are you going to leave me alone in my deso- 
 lation ? " his eyes asked when she turned and met 
 them or so, at least, she interpreted the sad gaze 
 fixed on her. 
 
 " I am very sorry for you," her own eyes an- 
 swered to that mute appeal ; and he drew still 
 nearer and took her hand in his own. 
 
 They sat down silently, and it was some 
 minutes before a word was exchanged. Then in 
 hushed tones, as if their voices might disturb the 
 rest of the two slumberers beside them, their 
 mutual explanation was made. A few sentences 
 sufficed for Stella's ; Southgate's was necessarily 
 less brief. 
 
 " When I reached Rome last January," he said, 
 " I found Eugene looking wretchedly. His 
 health had not been good for some months, and
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 275 
 
 latterly had failed so much that, by the advice of 
 his physicians, supported by the command of the 
 superiors, he had been compelled to suspend his 
 studies altogether for the time being. 
 
 " This was a great trial to him, for it involved 
 the delay of a year, probably, as to the time of his 
 ordination. In order to turn the period of en- 
 forced inactivity to the best account, as well as to 
 regain as soon as possible his lost health, he 
 proposed spending Lent in Jerusalem, and, then, 
 as the season advanced, coming to England and 
 devoting the summer to visiting all the holy 
 places of England, Scotland, and Ireland. I will- 
 ingly agreed to go with him to Jerusalem, and 
 determined to excuse myself from keeping an en- 
 gagement I had made with two Englishmen to 
 join a party they were getting up for several years' 
 travel in the East, and return with him to Europe 
 after Easter. But when Easter came he was so 
 much better that he insisted on my joining the 
 Englishmen in their first expedition at least, 
 which was through the interior of Palestine. He 
 accompanied me to Damascus our place of 
 rendezvous and there I parted from him." 
 
 The speaker paused here and was silent for a 
 little time, sitting with his gaze fastened on the 
 grave of his brother. His eyes were dim with 
 tears when at last he turned to Stella, and, half 
 shaking his head, exclaimed : 
 
 " Some time in the future, when I have learned
 
 276 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 to feel the resignation which now I can only de- 
 sire to offer to God, I will tell you about him," 
 his voice faltered. " You know I always did tell 
 you that if there was any good in me, any aspira- 
 tion after good, I owed it entirely to his example 
 and exhortations." 
 
 " I remember, " said Stella. " You always said 
 that he was saintly in character." 
 
 " He was truly so. His confessor in Rome said 
 to me, ' Do not think of him as dead, but as trans- 
 planted, translated. In all my life I have never 
 known such a beautiful and pure soul as his. I 
 do not hesitate to say that I believe he is in 
 heaven.' " 
 
 "Surely this is very consoling," said Stella 
 gently. 
 
 " Yes. I ought to be satisfied, since it is God's 
 will. But nature is weak. There were so many 
 reasons why I wished him to live " 
 
 He started up abruptly, and, walking some dis- 
 tance away, stood leaning against a tree for a few 
 minutes, looking vacantly toward the green 
 depths of shade in the park before him. Pres- 
 ently he came back and sat down again. 
 
 " I blame myself for having been persuaded to 
 leave him," he said, "for having let him a moment 
 out of my sight. It was with great reluctance 
 that I did so ; and every day of absence increased 
 my uneasiness, until at last I left my party and 
 returned much sooner than I intended to Jeru-
 
 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 277 
 
 salem, where he was to wait for me. I did not 
 find him. A few days previous to my arrival he 
 had started for Europe, but left a letter for me 
 begging me not to be at all anxious about him, as 
 he felt assured that a fever from which he was 
 recovering when he wrote had revolutionized his 
 system so thoroughly that he was now really re- 
 gaining his health. The English physician who 
 had attended him during his illness told me the 
 same thing. 
 
 " I lost no time in following him, however, but 
 did not succeed in overtaking him. Not know- 
 ing the route he had taken, I went via Venice to 
 Rome, hoping to find him there. Instead of that 
 I was met by the news of his death. His friends 
 had seen in the English telegraphic news accounts 
 of the loss of the vessel on which they knew he 
 had taken passage, had telegraphed to friends of 
 theirs in London and heard all the particulars " 
 he pointed to the two graves. " Several telegrams 
 and letters addressed to him were given me, but I 
 did not even look at them. No doubt the ones 
 which you say Mr. Gordon sent were among 
 them." 
 
 After another silence he went on with evident 
 effort : " I cannot talk of him yet, but hereafter I 
 must teach you to know him well. I want you 
 to feel as if you had known him. When we were 
 first engaged I sent him your photograph, and 
 while we were together he often looked at it,
 
 278 STELLA'S DISCIPLINE. 
 
 saying what a charming face it was and blaming 
 me for not having had patience enough with what 
 he felt sure was only girlish volatility. He saw, 
 what I was very loath to admit even to myself at 
 first, that instead of forgetting you, as, when I 
 left home, I believed I should, I regretted more 
 and more as time wore on that I had been so 
 implacable. I shrank at the sight of letters from 
 home, expecting each time that I opened one to 
 hear that you were lost to me. * Never fear,' 
 he said once as he saw me hesitate to break 
 the seal of a letter in my hand ; * I am sure you 
 will not find the bad news you are afraid of. I 
 have an intuition that Stella has no more for- 
 gotten you than you have forgotten her, and in 
 the autumn I am going to take you home and see 
 if I cannot persuade her to forgive you.' " 
 
 The speaker paused once more, and, taking 
 Stella's hand again, laid it, clasped in his own, 
 upon the grave, saying : 
 
 " Let me think that it is he who has spoken to 
 your heart for me now."
 
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